


A Vile Romance

by Deerbot



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Dry Humping, F/F, Fantasizing, Female Characters, Female Solo, Femslash, Masturbation, Non-Maverick Vile, Robot Sex, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-06-06 02:29:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6734287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deerbot/pseuds/Deerbot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a mission gone awry X reluctantly helps Vile by connecting their cores together, an encounter both refuse to acknowledge afterwards. A mysterious nurse shows up in X's infirmary room, and although she could barely see them in the darkness of night, she immediately becomes captivated by them. She's determined to find out who it was, if only to at least thank them for helping her. Meanwhile, Zero is trying understand where she and Vile stand with one another now that X has joined the Hunters. She may or may not be slightly jealous of X's new crush. </p><p>Femslash AU, though I didn't feel comfortable tagging it as genderbend since I don't like how a lot of genderbend fics go about things. It's also an AU where Vile doesn't become maverick, she's just a huge jerk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cores

Vile stumbled out of a pile of rubble, her helmet hiding the sour expression in her face.

She contacted headquarters that the overall mission was successful and ordered the rest of her unit back to base. Although the task to protect the facility was accomplished, the maverick responsible was still at large. 

“Do you need any help back? I’m getting some low energy readings from you.” asked the navigator on the other end.

“Of course not, I’m fine!” Vile barked. She’d never needed help returning to base and wasn’t about to start now. 

She quickly hung up and stumbled towards her ride armor nearby. If that maverick hadn’t snuck around and knocked her out of it the battle would have been over in a second. At least that’s what Vile deluded herself into believing. The maverick was more powerful than anticipated and nearly pulverized her, though she’d never admit it. If she could just return to base in one piece, she wouldn’t have to sacrifice her perfect undefeated record. She’d come back for this maverick another day and finish the job. She just had to keep herself steady and make it back. 

Sparks and smoke creeped from Vile’s joints as she attempted to climb into her ride armor. Even this simple task was proving to be a challenge for her. She managed to reach the top of the armor before loudly collapsing into the cockpit. 

She laid unceremoniously on the floor while her body sparked and hissed from the rough impact. Her energy was nearly spent and she could no longer move. She cursed herself and let out a loud frustrated growl filled with static. Even her voice was barely functioning now. 

Denial of her body’s mangled condition was slowly replaced by the reality setting in.

At this rate she’d be stuck here until hunter base realized she hadn’t returned. The idea of being stranded like some helpless human until help came didn’t make her happy at all. She didn’t let herself imagine what it would be like living with such a blow to her pride.

Although on the brink of shutdown she found enough energy to throw herself into a tantrum, filling the room with a stream of curses and static filled yelling.

Then suddenly she heard a voice.

“Hello?” 

Vile recognized it immediately.

X.

X had been assigned to Vile’s unit to gain more field experience for her hunter training. Vile angrily wondered why she hadn’t returned to base with the rest of her unit. 

“Vile?”

The blue hunter wandered closer to the ride armor. Vile cursed in her mind even more. She didn’t need her help! She was fine! She didn’t need anyone’s help! How pathetic she would look now to be found by X of all people! X was the most useless hunter in this whole mission. The second it started she got herself injured and had to stay behind the whole time. Why hadn’t she returned to base!?

“Hunter base confirmed everyone else has gone back, but I got no confirmation for you. I… I wanted to see if you were okay. Vile?”

Vile ceased making any noise, childishly believing if she stayed quiet X would simply go away.

X, however, could sense Vile’s faint energy signature nearby and guessed she must be inside her ride armor. She had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right, and as much as she feared Vile she couldn’t bring herself to simply abandon her if she were in trouble. Weren’t they supposed to be partner’s on this mission in the first place?

 

She felt her heart racing as she got closer to the armor, not sure what to expect. She was hoping it wasn’t anything too brutal, both for Vile’s sake and her own. X could never stomach the sight of battle damage well. On the other hand, she wondered if finding Vile in perfect condition was any more ideal. 

Vile was constantly picking on her. Her jokes and pranks frequently went overboard with X, causing her serious distress. She was also well aware of Vile’s absolute loathing of ever needing help from anyone. X wished she could’ve forced herself to head back to base and let Vile face the consequences of her decisions, but her conscious just wouldn’t let her no matter how little fondness she had for her.

X took a deep breath to calm her nerves, then hopped up to the cockpit. Sure enough, Vile was there.

“Vile!”

Vile winced at the sound of her name coming from X’s mouth.

“Are you okay?”

X crouched down near Vile who was laying chest down. Vile was quite obviously not okay. X could tell right away she was nearly drained of all her energy. X resituated Vile’s body so she was sitting up, hoping Vile wouldn’t kill her later for manhandling her.

“Vile…”

X knew she wouldn’t want to go back to base like this. But what was she to do? There weren’t any E-tanks anywhere, and all the charging pods in the facility were destroyed by an earlier explosion. Ideas ran through X’s head as she tried to figure out the best way to handle the situation. 

Finally she settled on an idea. 

“Vile… have you ever charged with someone’s core before?”

Vile’s eyes opened wide at the question. What kind of question even was that? Cores were one of the most essential parts of reploids, generating and circulating energy fluids all throughout a reploid’s body. Linking two together was arguably the most intimate thing two reploids could do with each other. And also extremely dangerous. Exposing one’s core put a reploid at their most vulnerable. Destruction of a core often meant death. Hence why they were protected by a special core casing inside the chest.

Just what was X trying to pull here? How naiive could she be?

“I know it sounds crazy Vile, but I think we both know there’s not many options right now…” X’s voice trailed off at the end, nervous about what Vile would think of the idea. X couldn’t figure out why she was going so far to help someone she was so terrified of.

X had another idea.

“How about this… I open my core first. Certainly you can trust me then?” X forced a smile onto her face to try and look more confident in the idea than she really was.

Vile was quickly losing her ability to speak, but managed to cough out a barely audible and static filled “fine.”

“Well okay… here goes…”

X suddenly felt lightheaded. She really just wanted to have all this done and over with as soon as possible and head back to base. What was she doing?

She started wondering if she really was too nice for her own good, but she’d already gone this far…

First X removed her armor, then opened her chest panel and revealed the casing of her core. Vile was surprised by how intricate it was. Beautiful designs and etchings adorned the casing. It was obviously expertly crafted with plenty of love and care. It was unusual even among reploids. Vile didn’t have much time to think though before she saw X begin opening the casing.

Vile stared in awe at the sight of X’s exposed core. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen. It had a soft, hypnotizing blue glow. She could feel energy pulsing from it almost like a heartbeat. X blushed noticing the odd gaze Vile was giving her. Her core fluttered sending out more small pulses of warm energy. Vile felt her body drawn to X’s energy. Try as she might she couldn’t snap herself out of her awkward trance. She quickly brainstormed for an explanation for such a demeaning reaction and concluded that her body was simply so starved for energy it was drawn to whatever source it could find. 

“Vile… Can I…”

X’s voice did the trick. She felt herself immediately come back to her senses. She felt like she’d been under a spell. She stared back at X and tried to spit out an insult, but only managed to let out pure static. 

As awkward as that was, it put X at ease. She felt more confident now of what she was about to do.

“I’m going to expose your core too, Vile. Charging like this can only be done directly between two cores. If you don’t want to just make a sound and I can call headquarters to come get you instead.”

Vile cringed at the mention of headquarters coming to get her. She felt herself drifting in and out of shut down and decided she had no other choice. She’d just have to make extra sure X never mentioned this to anyone, or else…

X waited a moment for a response. When she received none she scooted closer to Vile. She carefully removed Vile’s armor, trying not to aggravate her injuries. She then pulled down the body suit that covered her torso. She could sense Vile watching her making sure she didn’t do anything she’d regret. 

“Okay Vile, I’m going to need you to open your chest panel.”

A moment of silence passed. Both knew full well this was the point of no return. Vile stared back at X with an unreadable expression before the sound of a click echoed in the room.

“Thank you…” X said softly.

She opened the panel to reveal the casing around Vile’s core. Unlike her it was certainly not made to look aesthetically pleasing. Thick, mismatched pieces of metal made up the casing, no doubt from repairs done after Vile’s many near death experiences. There was no attempt to decorate it or make it stand out. X reminded herself that Vile was built as a war machine first and foremost and wouldn’t have a fancy casing for her core. Knowing her she probably wouldn’t care for it anyways. Vile was still staring at her with her unreadable expression. X wished she could read her mind or at least see through her helmet. Or maybe it was for the best she couldn’t.

Finally, X opened Vile’s core. Her mouth opened in awe and curiosity. She’d never seen anyone else’s core before and Vile’s was so different from her. Vile’s core didn’t pulse like her, rather it felt like it was buzzing. Its glow was deep red and vibrant, but extremely faint. Vile really was on the brink of a hard shutdown. 

The reality of the situation suddenly hit X all at once. Here she was doing something so intimate to reploids, something she’d never done before, something EXTREMELY DANGEROUS with another reploid who seemed to want her dead 99.9% of the time. X shoved the thoughts to the back of her head and decided she needed to get this over with sooner rather than later to avoid her anxieties and overthinking. She certainly didn’t want to hesitate while doing something so risky.

“O-okay, I’m going to link our cores together now.”

X carefully stuck her hand in her own core, fiddling around inside until she pulled out a transparent cable with glowing blue energy flowing through it. Like an artery, it pumped all the energy generated in her core throughout her body. There were actually several cables in her core, but this one in particular was reserved for the task of transferring energy to another. The sensation of her hands in her own core sent strange tingles and sensations throughout her body, but she tried to ignore the feelings and focus on the task at hand.

X now reached out her other hand into Vile’s core. She tried to find Vile’s cable as quickly as possible, wondering briefly if Vile would feel the same sensations she felt digging around in her own core. She hoped the red glow of Vile’s core would hide the blush that appeared on her face.

Vile most definitely was feeling strange sensations from X digging around in her core. She focused as much as she could on pushing all the sensations away and being as emotionless as possible. She didn’t want to feel anything and only wanted this to be over as quick as possible.

X found what she was looking for. With the two cables in each hand she only had one more step to do. She lined the ends of the cable up and quickly linked the two together. 

Vile and X both gasped.

Vile’s whole body surged with energy flowing from X’s body. It felt like she’d been jumpstarted. Not only was the energy rushing through her body and quickly replenishing her, it also felt extremely refreshing. Her charging pod never made her feel like this, even when it fully charged her. 

Soon Vile regained her ability to move and sat more upright. Whereas she was gaining energy, she could see X losing her. Her eyes began looking tired, and X slowly started hunching forward as her arms shook trying to keep her upper body up off the ground. 

“V-Vile, I think that’s enough. I’m going to run out of energy at this rate… hah… hah…” X huffed out in between labored breaths.

“Hahaha…” Vile only chuckled in response.

“V…Vile!” X started to panic. Maybe this was a bad idea. She weakly reached her hands up to where the cables connected and tried to tug them apart.

Vile grimaced at the action and smacked her hands away from the cables.

“Calm down you wimp! I’m going to repay the favor… I’ll bring you back to base in one piece, how’s that sound?” 

“Ngh…” X could only whimper in response. She had no choice but to believe Vile at this point. She prayed that there wasn’t any catch to Vile’s promise. 

X sank down further into the floor until her body collapsed down. She laid on the floor helpless. She knew Vile was going to drain her of every last bit of energy she had. She weakly gazed up at Vile’s face. Her vision was blurring now, but she felt something odd about Vile’s stare. Something about it put her a bit more at ease. If only she could see Vile’s face through her helmet to get a better look. 

The last things X remembered before blacking out was the sound of the ride armor starting up and the feeling of someone carefully shutting her core casing closed.

***

Vile wandered into the base recklessly in her ride armor.

“Vile! X!” One of the navigators called out.

“Hey, didn’t I tell you I’d be back?” Vile smirked.

“A-Ah! Of course. Oh, what happened to X? Is that what took you so long to get back?”

Vile was amused by how well all of this worked out. She plucked X from her lap with her ride armor’s arm and handed her to a nearby lifesaver.

“X had a bit of a run-in with a particularly bad maverick. I was able to track them down and eliminate them, retrieving X in the process.”

“Oh, thank goodness!”

“Hmph. Next time don’t assign me such a useless hunter!” Vile shouted. It wasn’t even the navigator’s job to assign hunters to units, but Vile just felt like yelling at someone. 

She left her ride armor in the bay and hopped off, heading back to her quarters.

She’d just continue going about her life like today never happened. All that mattered was her undefeated record was still perfect.

She’d probably forget about it by tomorrow anyways.


	2. Nurse Visit

Vile couldn’t make herself forget what happened. 

It was 2am when she decided to sneak across base towards the infirmary. Vile had no issue missing out on charging for the night since, thanks to X, she was fully charged when she’d gotten back that evening anyways. 

Vile mumbled to herself in frustration. Why was she so bothered anyways? No matter how she tried to distract herself her thoughts kept returning to her encounter with X. She decided if she could sneak a quick peek at X in the infirmary then it might bring some peace back to her mind. Then she could finally return to living her life of happily obliterating countless numbers of mavericks.

However, it was no easy task creeping around in the kind of armor she had. Consequently, she left the bulkier parts back in her room. As an added precaution she also left her helmet and deactivated the red sensor in her eye, knowing full well her usual silhouette would be a dead giveaway that it was her. She’d sooner be caught dead than tip-toeing around base to check up on X of all people. 

She was particularly careful not to get caught once she reached the infirmary. A handful of nurses kept watch late at night, going back and forth between rooms to tend to patients. She carefully poked her head into every room she passed by, quickly scanning for any sign of X. She was far down the hall before she heard a small moan that sounded rather familiar. She focused her hearing on its origin, and as she approached the room she cracked the door open.

Sure enough, there was X.

“Hehehe…” Vile strutted in, showering herself in praise for being able to locate X just from the sound of the slightest moan. 

She quickly retracted the thought after realizing that was kind of a weird thing to be able to do.

The room was dark, but enough light shown from outside the window that she could make out enough details. X was practically naked and appeared to be rather sick. Her cheeks were flushed, droplets of sweat covered her all over, and her mouth was slightly open drawing in shaky breaths. Her blanket was also thrown across the floor. A dried, rolled up towel rested on her forehead. 

Vile wasn’t entirely sure why X operated so strangely. She seemed far more human than reploid most of the time, and Vile knew enough about humans that she assumed X had something akin to a fever. Vile suspected it was due to draining X’s energy to 0%. X’s body wasn’t designed to start up after hard shutdowns like combat reploids were, so she was probably overheating from the stress it took on her body. Not to mention the cooling system in her body wasn’t up to that of a combat reploid either. It appeared the few cooling components she did have were meant to work in tandem with her ability to sweat, though Vile pondered the efficacy of such a design if it caused discomfort to X. Who even designs a reploid to sweat anyways? Vile pondered again.

Well that was fun. Vile gave X one more look-over and decided it was a good time to go.

Except it could never be that simple for some ungodly reason.

Vile’s attention kept turning back to the dried up towel on X’s forehead. The last nurse she snuck by was far down the hall. They wouldn’t get to X’s room for a long while. She’d be suffering the whole time until then. Not that she cared.

But maybe…

It couldn’t be that hard anyways, right?

Vile walked around X’s bed and stared at the small bucket of water on the nightstand. There was some trepidation in her movement as she brought her hand towards X. She grasped the towel from her forehead and got a clear look of her face. It glowed in the window’s light, drawing Vile in. She started feeling the same way she did when gazing at X’s exposed core. Without thinking she placed her hand on X’s forehead. It was noticeably hot to the touch. 

She held her hand there for a couple moments, resisting the urge to touch more of X’s face. She wasn’t very successful.

She moved her hand downwards, tracing around her features and lightly pressing on her soft, rosy cheeks. She moved her fingers down to X’s mouth and lightly rubbed them against X’s lips. She didn’t expect them to be so soft. Vile had never felt anyone else’s face before. She always heard how X didn’t just act like a human but looked and felt like one too. Yet X’s skin felt almost exactly like her own… 

Apprehension gripped her at the thought, so she pushed it to the back of her mind. She returned to squishing X’s cheek, giving it a light pinch.

She assumed X’s human-likeness also explained why her looks were rather average compared to most reploids. Many humanoid reploids were designed with human beauty ideals in mind such as flawless skin or tall, thin bodies. The best example she could think of was Zero. Designed to be aesthetically perfect and beautiful in every way. Her long wild hair, her strong build, her fierce eyes…

A voracious drive for battle that matched her own… 

She remembered a time not too long ago where they were each other’s only friends, always together and sparring, joking, facing disciplinary action together…

But then X joined the hunters not too long ago… 

And Zero lef-

A small grunt from X snapped Vile out of her thoughts. She hadn’t realized she was pinching X’s cheek just a little too hard. X’s eyes opened slightly and met with her own. 

Vile screamed internally.

This was it. Her whole life flashed before her eyes. It was over. X caught her feeling up her face and fantasizing about Zero. She never knew the day she’d have to kill X would come so soon.

“Zero…?” X weakly inquired.

Oh. 

Thank god she wasn’t wearing her armor or her helmet. She knew X had never seen her face before, and in the room’s poor lighting she doubt she could even get a good glimpse of that either. Her fever was probably making her hallucinate too. She supposed she could let X live this time then.

“You’re not Zero…”

Time for death.

“A-Are you one of the nurses? I’ve never seen you before…”

Vile was tempted to end X right then and there simply to stop the rollercoaster of panic she was sending her through.

“Y-yeah I’m one of the nurses. Just came over to check up on you.”

Vile decided taking advantage of X’s delirium was the best course of action, so she thought it would be easy enough to play along. 

“Y-You’re so beautiful…” X spoke softly, her eyes staring weakly at Vile in awe.

What.

What the fuck.

What the fuck the fuck.

Vile quickly glanced at her reflection in the window. A run-down looking face with greasy, black, dirt-matted hair, dried spots of weeks-old blood, scars, and an eye with dark, heavy bags stared back. Then she glanced at her eye enhancement. 

Half her face was a mangled, mechanical looking mess because of the combat enhancement she shoved into it. The one that gave one of her eyes its characteristic red glow. She remembered the day she decided her engineering skills were good enough to perform upgrades on herself, not just on her ride armor. The day she painfully tore apart her own face to install it, needing to be fully conscious during the whole operation since she was too untrusting of anyone else to do it for her. The advantage it gave her in battle was incredible…  
But she sacrificed her appearance for it, and though she would never admit it, she was incredibly self-conscience of it from then on. It didn’t help at all with her already neurotic and temperamental personality. It looked monstrous compared to the rest of her apparently human-looking face and she was glad she had a helmet to wear 24/7 to keep it hidden. Not just humans but even reploids were frightened by its jarring and uncanny appearance.

Was X blind?

Regardless, Vile was completely caught off guard. How could X even see enough of her face in the dark to come to such a conclusion? Without thinking she quickly brushed her hair over the disfigurement so X couldn’t see it and change her mind.

Why did she even care what X thought!? How dare she compliment her!

“S-So pretty…”

X smiled weakly just for Vile. 

“I think I like you…”

Vile felt like she was going to snap and tear X apart. Just who did X think she was saying such stuff! Was she messing with her!? 

“Okay buddy, your fucking NURSE says it’s time for you to go back to SLEEP.” 

Vile spoke through clenched teeth and forced a smile, her act starting to fall apart as she was overwhelmed with what she decided were ‘emotions.’ She didn’t need more of this mess right now. The whole point of coming here was to straighten out whatever weird feelings she was having before, not make them worse.

X wouldn’t stop smiling at her though, weakly giggling.

“You’re funny…”

Vile’s eye twitched. She felt like she was going to scream and flip X right out the window. Luckily she saw X’s eyes softly shut as she drifted off to what she hoped was sleep. She inspected her a couple minutes to make sure, then let out an exasperated breath. 

‘I think I like you.’

Just how much stuff was she going to have to force herself to forget now? 

She remembered the towel in her hand and what she was doing before X woke up. She dunked it in the bucket, letting it soak up as much water as possible, then pulled it out wringing the excess. She folded the towel and placed it on top of X’s forehead with more care than she was willing to admit.

X let out a small sigh of relief at the feeling of the wet towel on her head. Vile could have sworn she heard a small ‘thank you,’ but for the sake of her own sanity at this point she pretended she didn’t hear anything.

“Well, that wasn’t hard at all. Why do nurses even get paid for this kind of stuff anyways? I could make a better nurse than anyone here.”

She spent a moment observing her work. 

“Hmph, good thing I was here or who knows WHAT would have happened. X could have DIED. Good thing I’m a fast learner. God, I am just the absolute best. X wouldn’t survive without me.” 

Vile showered herself with more praise in her mind, feeling pretty satisfied. Deciding her work here was done, she turned around to head towards the door.

…And locked eyes with Zero.


	3. Zero's Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to include both Zero and Vile's viewpoints but it got really long, so next chapter will be more Vile centric again. \\( )/

Tension filled the room as Zero and Vile eyed each other warily. Each was trying to pull off their best poker face to hide the awkwardness felt over the unexpected encounter. 

“Hey…”

“Hey…….”

Another pause. 

Vile decided it was definitely best to leave now, never breaking eye contact with Zero until she was past the door. Once gone Zero carefully shut it to avoid waking X. 

Zero relaxed with Vile gone. She didn’t expect to meet anyone in X’s room this late at night, much less Vile. She glanced over at X sleeping calmly. She arrived early enough to see Vile place the fresh towel on X. Zero’s head was filling with more questions than she had answers.

But most of all, she wish she’d said something during the confrontation. She sat on the edge of X’s bed and pressed her fingertips against the damp towel, glad she was okay. For a time Vile was her only friend when she first joined the Hunters. She wondered what had changed, and gazed out the window as she reminisced on her past.

***

She remembered waking up not knowing her own name. Her reactivation had been a risky one, but X was insistent about giving Zero another chance. Cain and Sigma were wary of the idea, but were won over by X’s persuasiveness. It had been lucky that Zero woke peacefully and coherent instead of wild and ruthless again. News spread about Zero’s reawakening, and most people in Cain’s labs and at Hunter HQ were less than excited by the news. Zero and Sigma’s battle had really shaken up the sense of peace at the time. 

It was no surprise that from then on her only friends had been X, Cain, and Sigma. Sigma was usually gone attending to his work, but X and Cain cared for her during her rehabilitation. X in particular had been extremely curious about her. She asked Zero many questions and taught her many things about the world she had been awaken into. They played and kept one another company, hardly ever being apart from one another for long, even sleeping with each other at night. Zero couldn’t understand why she was so drawn to her. Her warm smile and sincerity quickly won her over in a world full of distrust, and she clung to X as if she were the only place she could call home. X in turn clung to her with just as much fervor. Both were drawn to each other in ways they had never felt for anyone else despite their differences.

“I feel like you’re the only who understands me.”

“Me too.”

However, she was growing increasingly bored being stuck in Cain’s lab all the time. She wasn’t allowed to leave the property until she passed more evaluations. The public outcry against her also proved to be an issue, and the only way to appease people at the moment was to give her restricted access to the outside world. She felt like a wild animal in a cage.

It wasn’t long before she found undesirable outlets for her high energy. She developed the habit of poking around in the labs when she shouldn’t have. Multiple times she’d accidentally broken important equipment or caused small explosions throughout the facility. Other times she felt agitated from pent up energy and picked small fights with lab workers, even purposely intimidating some for fun. It was from these experiences she learned just how much wrath and temper could hide in a body as frail as Cain’s. 

She had no desire to upset the man who had helped give her another chance, so she turned to the person she trusted most to help her. She tried play-fighting with X, but X’s inexperience and lack of fighting instinct led to Zero seriously injuring her on accident. X spent two days receiving repairs for the damage, Zero constantly at her side and apologizing. She couldn’t believe she had made X cry and hurt her so bad. X reassured her over and over that it was an accident and that it was okay, but it did little to stop Zero from blaming herself. 

Even moments of peace spent with X no longer calmed Zero’s destructive urges, and this realization filled her with the most guilt. She cared for X immensely, but apparently even that wasn’t enough. She wondered if something was wrong with her, if someone like her could truly live in a world like this. Perhaps it was best if she had never been reactivated, but the realization that she and X would have never met stopped that thought process in its tracks.

Then one day out of the blue, Sigma stopped by. Cain and Sigma explained to her how they came to the conclusion that Zero should join the Hunters. Not only would it be a good way to relieve her boredom, but it could help clear her name and earn people’s trust. The opportunity excited her and she immediately accepted. She hurried off afterwards to tell X the news. 

“I’m really happy for you!”

The words should have filled her with joy, but even she could see how forced X’s smile was. She tried convincing X to come along with her, that they could be hunters together. She was almost positive X would come with her, but X suddenly needed to go somewhere in a hurry. For the next week Zero hadn’t seen her even once. 

Did she do something wrong to cause X to avoid her? It was clear to her now that X had no desire to join with her, and that if she went it was going to be alone. The revelation shook her confidence. She barely knew anything about the outside world and without X to help guide her she didn’t know if she could manage on her own. She was tempted to call Sigma and reject the offer, but another equipment explosion that week dissuaded her. 

It was finally the day she’d be leaving. There was only an hour left until Sigma would arrive to escort her to Hunter Headquarters. In that small frame of time she forced herself to confront X. She marched to X’s room, writing an entire script in her head of what she was going to say to her friend who all but abandoned her for a week. As she approached the door though the urge to snap at X all but dissipated. She knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. She was about to leave after a few minutes when she finally saw the door open. There was a pause, and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. 

X only stared at her before tears welled up in her eyes. She flung herself forward, curling up and sobbing against Zero’s chest. Zero couldn’t believe she was about to come up here to yell at X. She still didn’t understand why X cried so much, but she tried to hold her the way X had taught her. Eventually she calmed down. X looked up at her, her eyes and face still red and puffy as she sniffled.

“I’m sorry, Zero.”

“You could have mentioned something before, you know…”

“I know, I’m sorry…”

Zero received a message that Sigma had arrived, but ignored it in order to spend time holding X. She wasn’t sure when they’d see each other again, and a part of her still didn’t want to leave. It processed in Zero’s mind just how much she would miss X when she left. She never felt a connection with anyone like she did with X.

“You should go, you’re already late.”

They gave each other one more hug before X told her goodbye. She smiled at her with the sincerity Zero admired. She still hoped X would change her mind and join one day.

“I’ll miss you…”

“I’ll miss you too…”

“…”

It was her first day as a hunter. The eyes of everyone she walked by were filled with apprehension and fear. Everyone was well aware of the hunters she slaughtered.

“I heard she was smiling the whole time!”

“I heard she was laughing.”

“How could they let someone like her in here?”

“Don’t come near me…”

She reread the message she received earlier about the location for the new recruit skill assessments. Where would the simulation room be? She was hopelessly lost in the base and already late. She wandered back and forth in the base trying to find someone to help, but people quickly walked away or ignored her when she approached. She growled in frustration, wishing X were here with her.

She was nearly an hour late when she arrived to the simulation room. Most of the hunters had already completed their skill assessments and left. Sigma was standing in the middle of the training room, looking disapprovingly at Zero.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Yes sir, I’m sorry sir. I got lost.”

Had it been anyone else, Sigma would have simply turned them away. Seeing as it was Zero though, He made an exception. Plus testing her and the last recruit left wouldn’t take too much time. He was already well aware of Zero’s fighting potential, and the other recruit waiting for her assessment had a lot of experience. She simply needed to do this to make their recruitment official.

“Luckily another recruit was just as late as you, so you’ll have a partner for your assessment. Now run out there and join them while I set up the room!”

Zero did as she was told and hurried into the field. Her partner was a purple reploid covered in heavy armor and bearing a cannon on her shoulder. A strange helmet covered her entire head. 

“Hey.”

Zero tried to be friendly, but the strange reploid simply turned their head to her and remained silent. 

“Well okay…”

The room flashed with a strange light and in a matter of seconds small targets filled the room. Sigma’s voice echoed from the intercom.

“You two have a minute to work together to take down as many targets as possible. The minimum to pass is 100, good luck.”

A loud beep sounded, and immediately the targets flew around everywhere in erratic patterns. Some even shot and rushed at Zero and her partner. Zero took a couple beatings and growled in irritation before getting into the swing of things. It had been a long time since she fought. Her partner on the other hand was ready from the start and had already taken down 90 targets.

“Having trouble over there, pretty boy?”

Zero growled at her, too busy avoiding targets to vocalize an insult back. She immediately shot 30 in succession, catching up with her partner. She heard them try to hide back a surprised gasp, then get knocked back by a target in their moment of distraction. Zero chuckled to herself. Whoever this person was, they seemed like fun competition. 

“You think that’s funny do you?”

Before she knew what happened, her partner kicked her to the ground and stomped on her. Several targets rushed her and she let out a pained gasp.

“What the hell was that for!?”

Ignoring the pain, Zero immediately jumped up and tackled her partner. Both continued trying to shoot at targets while they grappled with one another.

“You two stop! That’s enough! This isn’t part of the assessment!”

Sigma’s commands did nothing to settle the two unfortunately. The simulation room shut down and the targets disappeared, but it simply allowed them to focus on fighting with one another. Even Sigma marching angrily towards the two did nothing to motivate them to break it up. Zero bit down onto her partner’s bicep, her teeth sinking into her skin and drawing blood, while her partner shot her with her cannon point blank in her back. Sigma reached into the cloud of smoke from the explosion and jerked the two apart by their necks, holding each in one hand.

“I said STOP.”

He dropped them onto the ground. Zero coughed out, the explosion knocking the breath out of her. Her partner groaned as she sat up rubbing the bite wound on her arm, the point-blank explosion having damaged her as well. The two glared at each other. Sigma was about to step in again when suddenly Zero started chuckling. Her partnered returned the chuckle as well, and soon both were laughing boisterously with one another. Sigma stepped back a bit disturbed by the scene, but glad that they seemed to have settled down. Once calmed down, Zero smirked at her partner. It had been a long time sense she felt so happy and exhilarated. Her partner seemed to have felt the same. She almost forgot about Sigma in all the excitement.

“Well… if you two are done, I’d like to talk about your assessment. Although it wasn’t a full minute, you both were well over the minimum of 100 targets. You both pass. The two of you have a lot of potential, and I expect great things from you both.”

“Thank you sir!” Zero blurted out with excitement. Her partner didn’t say anything, but she could only assume she was just as happy as well.

“Don’t thank me yet. Your behavior today was unacceptable and I expect both of you in my office tomorrow morning to go over the necessary disciplinary action. For now though, you two are dismissed. I’d suggest heading to the infirmary for repair work… and good job.”

With that, Sigma turned away and left. Zero and her partner sat on the floor of the simulation room a moment longer, excitement still rushing through them. Her partner was the first to get up, standing for a moment before wandering over to Zero.

“So you’re Zero, huh?”

“Yup…”

Her partner removed her helmet and brushed back a mass of black hair from her face, revealing a glowing red eye. Her expression was just as wild as Zero’s, and Zero couldn’t help but feel relief knowing she wasn’t as alone as she thought. Her partner put her helmet back on and reached a hand out to Zero.

“The name’s Vile.”


	4. Vile's Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took forever to write... but I survived...
> 
> I had several ideas of what to do with Vile's backstory, and I thought this was the most interesting. I think the pacing's a bit off, but I really wanted to get it out of the way to work on the rest of the fic. Otherwise I'd be stuck working on this chapter forever~

Vile wandered quickly down the hall.

This had all been a bad idea from the start. Why did she go looking for X in the first place? If she had just stuck around in her room and waited for things to blow over this could have all been avoided.

She hurried on back to her room, her motions straightforward and mechanical. She was practically running on autopilot while her thoughts ran in her mind uncontrollably. She arrived at an elevator and pressed the button repeatedly until it arrived.

Seconds felt like minutes, and Vile sank deeper into her thoughts. She was having a panic attack. Just from running into Zero while with X. She couldn’t believe how incredibly stupid this was. Her intrusive thoughts wouldn’t go away, and she began flashing back to her past.

***

The beginning of her life had been a nightmare.

Vile was once property of a mercenary organization that did dirty work for the government in secrecy. She was never treated as anything more than a weapon. She was simply to take orders and accomplish any and all tasks given to her.

She was both their greatest weapon and their greatest ride armor engineer, and although a genius among both humans and reploids she was never allowed to perform any upgrades of her own design. Only upgrades requested by the higher ups were ever allowed and straying away from what they wanted, like everything else, led to punishment.

This included upgrades the organization performed on her against her will.

She was constantly reminded how she was their most expensive and high tech piece of equipment, and when she didn’t live up to their expectations punishment was harsh. She’d be beaten, insulted, threatened. Do things right or receive punishment was all she’d ever known as a result.

“We didn’t waste so much money on a piece of junk!”

“Should we just shut it down and send it back?”

“Already outdated?”

”You are a WAR MACHINE.”

She was a ruthless and terrifying fighter. She did everything she could to earn what little praise she could. It was the only thing she had been taught to live for. When she wasn’t deployed on missions or working on ride armors, she was locked away in her charging pod. She was never allowed out for leisure time or to ask too many questions. The objectifying treatment and isolation took a heavy toll on her developing psych.

Then one day she had enough.

“Let GO OF ME.”

Vile struggled against two human mercenaries and a researcher, some strange device jammed in her back preventing her from moving her body. Her wavy body-length hair dragged across the ground. She’d been forced out of her charging pod mid-sleep and rushed to the labs without any explanation.

“Oh, hold still. If you’d behave yourself we wouldn’t have to do any of this in the first place. That collateral damage you did has us drowning in a lot of unwanted attention and the boss is none too happy, you know.”

“I was ordered to eliminate all the targets at any cost, and that’s what I DID!”

“Enough. I don’t have time to listen to your ramblings. Probably just malfunctioning again… How stupid. Strap her on the table you two.”

She was tossed harshly onto an operating table and strapped down, a precaution to prevent her from escaping.

She hated this room.

She hated being restrained, having no control.

She hated herself.

All upgrades and operations done on her took place here. They were often painful and disorienting. She’d warn them hysterically about upgrades that weren’t completely compatible or too buggy to use on her, how dangerous they’d be to her body’s operations. Surely they’d listen to someone with as much engineering knowledge as herself? It was her body after all.

But they never listened. All the humans in the facility believed they knew what was best for her. They’d replace her if they had to. Her boss always pointed out that they were the ones who spent all the money in designing her in the first place and it wouldn’t be a problem designing another. She tried convincing herself they did know what they were doing and to not panic.

But she knew truthfully they simply didn’t care. The strange upgrades did strange things to her programming. It made her feel schizophrenic and unstable. Her body would overheat and become feverish. She’d yell and thrash in her pod at night while her programming went crazy trying to understand the new upgrades. She was terrified to find out what this new upgrade would do to her mind and body.

Then she heard a crash. One of the guards had knocked some strange liquid on the ground in another room.

“You idiots, get away from that! It’s incredibly corrosive!”

She was alone. The scientist had rushed out before initiating her shutdown sequence. She wish they’d done so before though. She’d rather be unconscious. The anticipation from waiting drove her crazy with anxiety. Still mostly paralyzed, all she could do was painfully grind her teeth together.

The researcher was taking a while. She could hear them running around outside the room trying to clean up the mess. It must have been something bad. By chance, she heard an incoming call from the nearby computer.

“Hey, the boss wants to know if you’ve finished that memory wipe on Vile yet. He said it doesn’t need to be as thorough as last time, but government officials are almost here and they’re demanding they receive any visual data she obtained out on her mission. If they get a hold of that we’re toast. Hello? Dammit, where they…”

Vile froze in shock. What exactly had they been doing to her? This was torture. Paranoid thoughts flooded her mind. What had they wiped before? What kind of things had she forgotten? Was she really herself? Would she still be who she was now? Was this all she had to look forward to in life? She was so tired…

…

She didn’t have much more time to think before the researcher came back. They were apparently aware of how little time there was and fumbled nervously with a handful of wires they jammed into Vile.

Vile could feel her shutdown approaching, but this time she was calm. She doubted they were going to wipe her entire memory. She left several files for herself later. Something clicked in her mind and a plan was set into motion. She knew what she needed to do now. She just had to be patient.

Several weeks passed.

“Good afternoon, sir.”

Vile wandered into a large office. War memorabilia and awards decorated the walls and at the center was a large and lavish desk. A large man sat in a chair, his robotic prosthetic arm motioning for Vile to sit on the chair on the other side.

“Come, sit. Share a drink with me. This is some of the best bourbon in the world, you know.”

Vile did as she was told and forced herself to sound pleased at the invitation. By now she knew anything to upset her boss would earn her a smack across the face. She always had to be careful of how she came across to everyone. If she ever showed any displeasure, as usual, punishment would be the result.

“I wanted to discuss with you directly about an upcoming job we’ve had offered to us. This will be our biggest one yet, big enough to put us above all of our competition. Accordingly, I wanted to explain to you the importance of this work and what is expected of you…”

Vile sipped the drink in her hand. She waited for a chance at revenge ever since she learned about the memory tampering they had done on her. She’d done nothing but let her anger and bitterness fester since then. Her patience paid off, her perfect chance for revenge finally arriving. She smiled.

“Whatever you need, sir.”

It had been a disaster for the company. It was a top news story for weeks. Months later people would still reference it as political fodder. The government had never been in a scandal of such magnitude before, nor had it ever been so vulnerable. Top secret information had been leaked to all their enemies as well as allies. The public was outraged.

Vile could only imagine the face on her former boss. Arrested as a war criminal. Endless cover ups and scams being linked back to him. It was perfect. Vile waited patiently in her charging pod for government officials to finally come by and confiscate her. She didn’t know what would happen to her now, but for once in her life she felt she had some control over her fate.

She’d been assigned to work on all the ride armors. Instead, she sabotaged them. She leaked confidential government information the organization had been given. Once she was deployed on the mission, she snuck off. Without a seasoned war machine like herself to lead, it had been total chaos.

The only regret she’d have was not being able to take down her old boss herself.

She stared out the window of the door, researchers rushing out of the building with secret papers and equipment before officials could come and arrest them and discover their work.

She was their best weapon. An incredible war machine. For once she felt like she could embrace her identity. She proved to the world just how much power she had. She laughed to herself in the room, smiling. She’d never felt so happy before. She never even knew she could experience happiness in the first place. She was forced to perform her whole life. Emotions other than anger and fear were still a new thing for her.

Officials did arrive for her later, but not for confiscation purposes. They wanted her for questioning. They wanted a few more files of her here and there. They wanted to do a few scans. Nothing much really.

And then she was free to go.

She stared at them in shock. Weren’t they going to destroy her? Shut her down forever?

“Aren’t you going to scrap me?”

The officials looked at each other with quizzical expressions. One of them was a reploid even, and it was this one who offered her an answer.

“You’re not a mechaniloid, and from our assessments you’re most definitely not maverick. You’ve helped us uncover one of the largest cover-ups in history, why would we scrap a reploid like you?”

Vile never had a chance to truly know what the outside world was like. Her whole life had been restricted to her mercenary work. To her boss. To the small charging pod in her room.

“I see…”

The reploid smiled and nodded at her.

“If you like, we can offer you a recommendation to the Hunters. They could use a good reploid like you.”

They sent her a quick message via communicator before they and the rest of the officials left.

Vile stood in the room all night. The revelation that she inherently had her own degree of independence struck her like a brick. At first she was elated, but then she started putting the pieces together. Her treatment, being called a machine… The degree of power and control these people had over her life dawned on her. Anger boiled. It was then she learned she had something called pride, and that these people had beaten and dragged it for her entire life up to this point.

No longer having to worry about punishment or restraints, she let out her frustrations on the facility.

She tore through walls, trashed rooms, blasted any equipment she could find. Finally she went to her old boss’s office and demolished it. Her temper finally subsiding, she stood silently in the middle of the burning room.

She was free now…

But she didn’t know what to do…

What could she do…

She was supposed to clear out of the building by next week...

Where would she go...

…

She pulled up the message the reploid official had given her. Maverick Hunters, huh? They provided a place to live to all accepted recruits. She really had nowhere else to go. All she’d ever known was mercenary work, and this didn’t seem much different. She’d dealt with mavericks a couple times before on missions.

She wandered back to her old charging pod. It no longer felt like a prison, but a retreat. For once she truly let herself enjoy the feeling of sleep take her over.

The next morning she reveled in her autonomy. She explored the facility, tearing up and destroying more stuff for fun. Her newfound control over her body filled her with the most excitement. She cut her hair off up to her neck. She tinkered with the leftover ride armors in the property. 

Finally, she decided to test her limits. She would never trust anyone to operate on her body again. But she could trust herself.

And so she tore her left eye apart from its socket. It was painful, but she didn’t care. In its place she inserted a new one she designed. One she knew would be compatible with her body. The benefits were incredible, and her confidence in her skills skyrocketed. It was perfect.

All except for what it did to her appearance, but for now she tried to convince herself it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a challenge with such a perfect upgrade. Now she was even more effective a war machine than before.

In a few days, she’d start her new life. She’d see what this Hunter business was all about.

***

The elevator dinged, and Vile snapped out of her thoughts. She was crouched down on the floor, gnawing on her thumb and whimpering. She’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t noticed herself taking up such a position. She quickly stood up and exited the elevator.

A few more moments and she made it to her room. She hated herself for letting her memories impact her in such a way. She hadn’t expected a flash back at a time like this. She marched into her room and immediately shoved herself into her charging pod. It was the only place with the exception of her ride armor where she could feel at peace.

Try as she might though, she couldn’t stop thinking. Her memories jumped to the first day she joined the hunters.

***

“The name’s Vile.”

Zero looked up at her for a second, then smiled and reached out her hand to grab onto Vile’s. Vile pulled her and they stared at each other a moment.

“So this how you make friends?”

“Never had one before, so can’t really say for sure.”

Friends? That was easier than she thought. She’d been trying to make small talk with people since morning to try and socialize, albeit extremely awkwardly. Most people found her neurotic mannerisms and aggressiveness creepy or frightening, so they kept their distance. She couldn’t figure out what she was doing wrong. She’d never truly socialized with anyone before. At least she managed to make friends with the crazy serial killer, anyways. It’d probably work to her benefit if Zero ever snapped.

They spent the evening exploring the base together. The base was much larger than they expected. There were several cafeterias, charging bays, and television rooms. Zero eagerly urged her on to explore more with her.

Both wanted to make sure they knew where everything was to avoid getting lost in the morning. Most of all they wanted to make sure they knew where Sigma’s office was. If they were late tomorrow morning for a meeting with her, neither wanted to imagine what would happen.

“Hey Vile, do you want to come back to my room?”

“…”

It was far more spacious than hers. She wondered why Zero got such special treatment, but decided it was best to investigate later. She wandered around the room exploring everything in it. A sink? A bathroom? It looked so strangely human. Why would a reploid choose to live like this?

“Neat, huh? I requested something similar to my room back at Cain’s labs.”

“Cain?”

Zero stared at her for a moment, thinking Vile was joking about not knowing someone so influential in the world of reploids. Once she realized she was serious though, Zero took the time to explain. Vile appreciated the explanation, but something about not knowing information that was apparently basic didn’t sit well with her. She decided it was best to not ask questions and just smile and nod. She learned she didn’t like looking ignorant.

“Don’t worry about it. To be honest, I don’t know much else about the world either. I was only reactivated a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah, I heard.”

Zero smiled at her. Vile didn’t know why, but she really liked it when she did that.

Then Zero pounced her.

The two went tumbling into the ground as they grappled, both growling and trying to pin the other. It was a quick match with no clear winner, but both were tired from earlier so neither expected much more from it.

“You want to sleep for the night? I’m really tired after today.”

“Sure. See you tomorrow then.”

Vile got up and made her way for the door before Zero grabbed her arm.

“I meant with me.”

Vile didn’t know why but the idea made her anxious. Zero smiled at her again though, and suddenly she felt it wasn’t such a bad idea. A question still hovered in her mind though.

“How would both of us fit into a single charging pod?”

Zero led her to another room with a bed.

“You sleep in a bed?”

And Vile thought she was strange…

“Yeah. I know most reploids sleep in pods, but I had a friend back home who slept in a bed with me all the time.”

Another friend…

“Here, you just hop in like this under these blankets and plug yourself in here…”

Zero looked truly strange under the covers with her arms folded behind her head… but Vile decided to give it a try. She got under the covers and laid perfectly straight, her feet pointed upwards, staring directly at the ceiling. She could feel Zero looking at her awkwardly. Wasn’t she doing it right though?

“You, uh, gotta relax a bit more.”

What the fuck did that even mean?

She folded her arms behind her head, but otherwise her position was unchanged.

“…Close enough.”

Zero smiled at her again.

Vile didn’t know why she liked that so much, but she was glad she had her helmet on. She had a feeling she didn’t want Zero to see her face when it felt so warm.

“Well goodnight. I gotta wake up early tomorrow to call X.”

X?

X…

X!

***

Vile’s eyes snapped open, the entire sequence of memories coming to a halt. What had she been doing earlier! It was all X’s fault Zero left her…

And fuck she was chewing on her thumb again.

How stupid she was. She began growling in her charging pod, then yelling out and having a full blown tantrum. She banged around in her pod and shouted insults and curses. The soundproofing in her pod kept anyone from hearing though.

She was at least able to finally calm down once the tantrum tired her out. Her invasive thoughts had stopped too. She was so tired of thinking. Her bitterness and jealousy over X was renewed. Her strange feelings for X were no longer an issue.

She was absolutely going to kick X’s ass tomorrow.


	5. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You may notice I've changed a few things regarding pronouns and stuff in this chapter, and the change extends to all the previous chapters if you've been reading since I started. Just a heads up. 
> 
> For the past couple years I’ve been dealing with my own gender dysphoria, and both my tumblr and my fics were originally created to help me cope with this. After having transitioned for a few months, taking hormones, ect. I’ve learned a lot about myself. And since for the past two years I’ve used fics/art as outlets, I decided to extend that to this fic as well since I'll continue working on it for a while (meaning any past fics will be left untouch).
> 
> This chapter may be familiar to some since it was once an earlier XVile fic I posted long ago. One meant to also be multiple chapters, so in a way I guess this was kind of a Vile Romance prototype. As such I decided to adjust it and make it a part of this fic since I think it fits better here now.
> 
> It was also named The X-Viles which is a title I will never ever be able to match the genius of ever again.

After that night in the infirmary Vile made sure every encounter with X was a hostile one. Her bullying became more aggressive and she frequently sought out X to beat her around. She was constantly plotting new scenarios and techniques to make X’s time at the Hunter’s miserable. 

However, what she wanted most of all was an all-out fight with without getting reprimanded. Beating X to a pulp sounded oh so satisfying to her.

Finally, her chance arrived. X had been receiving daily training sessions with Sigma and Zero, but both were unavailable today. With all the other captains busy on missions the task fell upon Vile. Vile loved the feeling of battle and was notorious for being way too rough with lower class hunters, many having been sent to the medical center for serious repairs.

She licked her lips in anticipation for the opportunity to do so with X. She waited in the training room for X to arrive as the excitement in her body built.

X walked into the training room hesitantly. Vile’s recent abuse and harassment had done a good job of terrifying her. X tried to have Zero talk with Sigma to create some other arrangement, to no avail. X had already missed two previous sessions and Sigma was beginning to lose his patience. Zero tried to give X a ‘good luck’ speech before departing. She still recalled Zero’s thumbs up and a smirk tinged with worry.

Vile gave her own smirk that grew the more X approached her, hidden behind her helmet.

“Good afternoon, X! You ready for your training session today?” She yelled out tauntingly on the other side of the training room.

X cringed at the tone of voice.

“I’m rea-AHK!“ X yelped loudly as a fist slammed into her head before she could finish her sentence. The force was enough to send her whole body skidding and bouncing across the ground.

“HahaHA. You need to be ready for surprises X. Don’t think I’ll go easy on you like Sigma or Zero…” Vile mocked as she wandered over to X’s body.

The impact to X’s head was enough to temporarily paralyze her body. Vile frowned as she eyed her lying face down on the ground. She wasn’t about to let their battle end after only a single punch. There was still plenty of pent up frustration in her that she wanted to take out on X. She kicked X over onto her back, earning another yelp. Why wouldn’t she hurry up and fight her more?!

“GET UP. We’re not done.”

X made a small attempt to do so as the ability to move slowly returned to her, but Vile began to grow impatient.

“I said GET UP.” Vile stomped harshly on X’s stomach.

Saliva and blood splattered out of X’s mouth as the air was knocked out of her. She let out a loud groan and tears began to form in her eyes as she tried not to break down crying in front of Vile. She quickly propped herself up on an elbow as she hurled the contents of her stomach onto the ground. System warnings were flashing in her vision and she felt panic running through her body. Vile was known for being unpredictable and there was no way to know what she’d do next. Growing terrified for her own well-being X desperately tried to get her body to move. Vile stepped back and watched as X trembled getting up, harshly wheezing from having been stomped in the stomach.

It became obvious to Vile that X truly wasn’t going to last much longer. Only minutes into their session and it was practically over.

“Pathetic” Vile muttered. She couldn’t help but feel agitated. She’d gotten excited for nothing. Here was the perfect opportunity to take out the strange frustrations X caused her without being reprimanded, and it was already over. To think someone as weak as X could have caused her to get so worked up. She pointed her cannon downwards to at least end the battle with a bang.

Suddenly, X fired several shots at her.

Vile jumped back as the first shot nearly knocked her helmet off, but dodged the rest without effort.

“YES” Was the first thought that ran through Vile’s mind. She could feel her earlier excitement return and revitalize her, eliminating all her agitation. “FIGHT ME FIGHT ME FIGHT ME” ran through her mind nonstop, ready to play the game she loved so much.

X couldn’t think straight and was panicking. She was trying her best to fight but couldn’t help feeling she was doing it more for survival than training at this point. The energy from her blasts had whirled up the dirt from the ground creating clouds of dust everywhere. X shakily held her buster as she looked around, hoping to spot Vile.

X wasn’t experienced enough to see her in time. Vile let out a shot from her cannon that blasted X dead center in her chest. X screamed as the force of the blast smashed her into the wall all the way towards the end of the training grounds. She stayed stuck in the crevice created from the impact of her body, a melted hole present in the center of her chest armor. Vile’s figure revealed itself through the dust as she approached, and X felt herself freeze at the sight.

Vile reached her hand out to grasp X’s neck and yanked her out of the crevice, earning a whine. She held X’s body over the ground for a few seconds, squeezing tightly around her throat. X’s eyes shut tight, then opened up slightly to stare back down. Tears, blood, and snot streamed down her face as it began to turn purple. X let out weak chokes as her eyes started glazing over. She didn’t have the energy to fight Vile and her hands gripped weakly at her arm in a vain attempt to pry it away from her throat. Even on the brink of unconsciousness she attempted to resist. Satisfied, Vile let X drop to the ground.

X landed with a crash and immediately leaned forward to let out a series of harsh coughs. She wheezed and inhaled as much air as she could and spluttered up blood with each cough. She was kneeling in front of Vile, her hands clenching tightly around the dirt on the ground as she tried to regain her breath. She didn’t dare look up at Vile.

Vile knelt down in front of her. X leaned back slightly, knowing Vile was now at the same level as her. She could feel Vile’s eyes roaming all over her body. It felt like a pressure on her, and X began to shiver and whine. She’d wondered what she’d done to make someone like Vile hate her so much, especially after having helped her recharge her core. Even now she still kept it as their own secret.

Vile loved seeing the traces of battle all over X’s body, bruised and damaged from their short bout of fighting, their dancing. Part of her wished X would, or rather could, fight her with the same intensity that she herself had shown. Nothing felt more exciting or intimate to her, whether the damage was inflicted on another or herself. 

Vile traced her hand around X’s armor to observe her work, running her fingers over dents and scratches in the armor. She couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by its strength. She eyed the melted hole in the front and ran her fingers along it as well. Ordinarily a blast like that from her cannon would have shot straight through a reploid’s core and been fatal. 

Her mind flashbacked to the time they linked their cores together, when she was mesmerized by X’s. How delicate and beautiful it had looked. It was an odd feeling, and apprehension gripped her at the realization that she almost damaged it. Suddenly she noticed the warmth that was growing in her cheeks as she continued observing X.

Vile wanted to be affectionate with X. 

This wasn’t good.

Not at all. 

Her breathing quickened at the idea of doing something so foreign and uncharacteristic of herself. She wasn’t even sure she was capable of it without causing further damage. Her curiosity enveloped her though, and she decided to act on this urge knowing no one else was around.

Vile’s hand shook with excitement and nervousness as she slid her hand upwards to gently grab X’s chin. X flinched at the touch, but didn’t resist as Vile pointed her face upwards to look her in eyes. X’s eyes were wide and anxious. She slouched into herself and twitched at the slightest movements from Vile. Her breathing was hard and raspy from crying and her tears made her face wet and sticky.

Vile rubbed her thumb across X’s jaw in a soothing motion. She lifted her helmet slightly and brought her face towards X to lick up her tears. They tasted salty as she let her tongue run flat against her soft cheeks. 

This was comforting, right?

X froze, giving small whimpers from Vile’s caressing and licking. She was extremely confused by her actions, but began to calm down bit by bit. She felt she hadn’t much choice but to let her do whatever she wanted. Vile pressed her helmet against X’s to rest her head on it. She let out a small chuckle that grew into crazed laugh. She was actually doing this. Actually capable of this. 

“There there, X. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Vile said both soothingly and mockingly to her.

“Ngh…” was the only sound X found herself capable of making. 

She was still paralyzed by the trauma of the brief battle. She needed comfort desperately, but was hesitant to accept it from Vile of all people for it. Why was she acting so gentle anyways? Had Vile finally snapped? She felt incredibly vulnerable though, and when she felt Vile’s other arm pull her body towards herself she broke down crying.

She curled up into a ball, sobbing and shaking violently against Vile’s chest, trying to calm herself and feel better. She tightly wrapped her arms around Vile’s waist.  
She badly needed to hold and be held by anyone right now.

Vile surrounded her with her body and rested her chin on the top of her head, pleased at the response she was getting from X. She was surprised how easily she could comfort her after such a thrashing. The idea made her giddy. She held X tighter against her body until there wasn’t a bit of space left between the two. 

X relaxed against her, physically and emotionally exhausted. Her arms loosened as she sat still and silently in Vile’s lap. She rested her cheek against her, her eyes still red from crying.

Vile began fantasizing about personally training X. Maybe Zero was onto something. But it would have to be real training, not the useless hunter kind. No, if she had her way with training her she could be useful instead of deadweight on their missions. She gently gnawed the top of X’s head as her thoughts wandered, X giving a gentle huff in response.

Vile’s eyes snapped open. 

What was she thinking? 

What was this? 

“That’s all for today.” Vile flatly stated to X. She unwrapped her arms, shoved her away, got up, and left.

X stared at Vile as she departed, confused by the abruptness of her exit. She held out a hand as if to say something but stopped herself. 

What was going on…

It wouldn’t be until half an hour later that X felt settled enough to get up and make her way to the infirmary. She was silent and oblivious to the worried stares people gave her when they saw her battle damage. Thoughts ran through her head, still not entirely sure what even transpired during her fight with Vile. She didn’t want to talk with anyone about it, not even Zero. Everything about it was strange and surreal to her. 

Was Vile mad at her? She’d been so much more hostile to her lately. Was it because she linked their cores together? X couldn’t think of any other possible reason. 

She started wishing she’d never bothered helping Vile in the first place. Yet Vile comforted her... 

X started feeling guilty but also agitated. She was so confused.

Finally she made it to the infirmary, hoping a long night of rest and repair would help her just forget all of it.

Maybe she’d dream of that beautiful shadowy figure again…

***

Vile smashed a table against the wall in her room. What the hell was that earlier?! She growled loudly as she searched for something else to destroy. She punched the screen on the wall then ripped it off and hurled it. She paced around her room trying to understand, violently gnawing her clenched fist. She stamped a massive hole in the floor. This was X’s fault. It had to be. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t happen again. She switched to gnawing her other hand when she began tasting her own blood in her mouth, pacing more. She slammed another table against the wall before she felt somewhat calmer. She forced herself to shut down as she entered her charging pod, fully intent on pretending none of it ever happened.

From now on her new plan was to completely avoid X. She hoped today beat it into X to never cross her path again.


	6. Fantasies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> X is thirsty

X and Zero were winding down for the day as they walked to X’s room. Zero returned the night before and wanted to spend the day catching up with X. 

“Are you sure you’re doing okay after training with Vile? The nurses mentioned you looking pretty thrashed the other day. It had me pretty worried. I can kick her ass for you if you want.”

“No no, it’s fine. She knocked me around a bit, but she lost interest pretty fast when I couldn’t get up.” 

X blurted it out without thinking and Zero’s face became even more worried. She really didn’t want to talk about it though. Her emotions were still a chaotic mess over it. 

“So how was your mission with Sigma?” 

X was trying to change the subject. Zero was reluctant to go along with the change, knowing something was wrong. X was jumpier than usual at the mention of Vile, but Zero was aware if she kept pushing the issue X would shut her out. Agitating X wasn’t her intention.

“It was okay, just a few mavericks up in some mountains. Most of the work was scouting them out. After that it was a pretty quick mission. Sigma mentioned an important meeting tomorrow too.”

“Oh, what for?”

“Representatives from the capital want to stop by and discuss with us captains about what we can do to improve our performance, kind of like a monthly review. I have a feeling it’s going to be long and boring as usual though. They’re probably going to chew Vile’s head off again. That should be fun to watch. Ugh, but so soon after I just got back too…”

As Zero rambled a nurse walked by, and it reminded X of something she wanted to mention to Zero.

“You know, I still haven’t seen that one nurse again.”

“O-Oh?” Zero responded, trying to hide her irritation with a forced smile.

Zero hated when X asked about her ‘nurse.’ When X woke up that day it was all she wanted to talk about. Zero wished she had convinced X at the time that it was just a dream, but instead she said she simply didn’t get their name. Almost every conversation with X since that day, one way or another, would have some mention of them. It drove Zero crazy.

‘They were so beautiful…’

She wanted to tell X it was Vile in her room that night. That this beauty X had become infatuated with was none other than the reploid who terrorized her. Yet she couldn’t. She wasn’t sure if it was because she still cared about Vile or if she simply wanted to preserve X’s innocence, but it tormented her.

“It’s so strange, Zero. I asked every nurse I saw if they knew who it was. I described them as best I could, then again all I could make out was their hair and half of their face at the time. I wish I got a better look. I’m certain if I could describe them better the nurses might know who it is. Every time I stop by the infirmary I never see them either.”

There was a time where Zero felt certain that X harbored the same feelings for her and in time both would work up the nerve to confess to one another. However, X’s obsession with her ‘nurse’ planted doubt in her mind. Maybe X didn’t feel the same way? If she told X how she felt now would it ruin their friendship? X had never talked so obsessively or passionately about someone before. She didn’t want X to stray.

Zero knew X was too naïve and caught up in her rambling to notice that she was getting increasingly agitated. Not that she was jealous or anything. She and X were best friends after all. She had nothing to worry about…

Just in case, Zero decided to take some precautions.

“And then I asked the lady at the des- H-Hey! Zero! W-What are you doing!?”

Zero had slid a hand around X’s waist and pulled her close as they walked.

“Hm? What are you talking about?” She asked innocently, softly squeezing X.

“You uh… your arm is… I mean it’s okay I just didn’t expect…”

Zero smiled at X stumbling through her own words. 

X had gone silent. Her face was flushed pink and her head tilted downward, a hand curled up and resting on her plump lips, eyes wide and glancing shyly away from Zero. Zero felt her ego rise from having such an effect on X. She smirked at herself. How could she have any doubts about how much X liked her? Once this crush of hers has blown over everything will return to normal. It’s not like X would ever find her ‘nurse.’

“Welp, here’s your room.”

She unwrapped her arm from X, who glanced her eyes at Zero again and smiled shyly, her hand still up against her lips.

“Ah… Thanks Zero. I hope your meeting isn’t too boring tomorrow.”

“Eh, I’ll survive.”

X sauntered over to the door and unlocked it, well aware that Zero was watching. So X was trying to be coy now, eh? If only she’d wrapped her arm around her sooner.

“Good night, Zero.”

X gave Zero a flirty smile before shutting the door, leaving Zero alone in the hall with butterflies in her stomach and renewed confidence.

Yeah, this would all definitely blow over.

***

X was incredibly flustered now. She knew Zero liked flirting, but she wish she picked a different day to do so. It wasn’t that she did anything wrong, it was just… X had been really horny the whole day. Rambling about the mysterious nurse hadn’t helped either, yet she couldn’t stop herself from talking about them. 

She walked into her bedroom and threw her armor and undersuit off. She was ready to relax in bed the rest of the evening and gave her hair a good ruffle now that it was free of her helmet. Her hair was silky and she enjoyed running her hands through it to soothe herself. 

She wore nothing but underwear as she stretched out her body on top of the covers. It felt so good to relax after such a long day. She flipped herself over onto her belly, nuzzling into her pillow and exhaling a deep breath. As stressful as hunter life was, at least she could always return to her room for some peace and quiet. 

And privacy.

X pondered while she lazily swung her legs back and forth. The warmth below her belly held her attention. She glanced downwards at nothing in particular, gripping her pillow tighter and nuzzling her face deeper. Her entire face was flushed red.

She took a hand away from the pillow and slid it under her belly, roaming downwards to her underwear and over her groin. She lightly pressed down and rubbed, teasing herself.

X was in a conundrum. She masturbated plenty of times before. What had her feeling distressed was the fact that she never fantasized about anyone while masturbating. She was tempted to with Zero a couple times in the past, but their friendship prevented her. Something about it didn’t seem right. But now her fantasies were revolving around someone she didn’t even know. She was feeling horny and guilty all at the same time and it was frustrating her.

She tried to ignore the images of the mysterious nurse in her mind and simply masturbate as usual. She pressed harder on her underwear to let her fingers slip into the crease of her pussy and rub near her clit. Her underwear was already damp and she could feel heat enveloping her body as she became more aroused.

She parted her legs slightly to put her weight on her knees and lightly thrust her hips into her fingers. She let out small whines with each thrust, focusing on the sensations spreading from her groin, holding on tighter to her pillow, imagining the mysterious figure grinding against her as she fingered herself…

X opened her eyes and paused her hand movements, letting out a hot puff of breath. She hadn’t meant to imagine that, yet she did. And the jolt of pleasure just then was incredible. Her insides fluttered and filled with desire. It was nothing like the feeling of masturbating for fun. She realized she was lusting after someone.

She whined into her pillow, conflicted on what to do. Would it be okay fantasizing about someone she never met? Was that bad? She didn’t even know if she’d ever meet them again…

Yet she’d been completely captivated with them since that night.

She remembered the faint glow from the window illuminating the angles of their face and the tresses of their hair. They looked strong and stood proud like Zero, yet their beauty was something entirely different from hers. She thought she was looking at an angel. If it weren’t for the soreness in her body at the time she would have thought she was in a dream. She remembered how they placed the fresh towel on her head so gently. X felt so happy in that moment.

While her mind wandered, X had started slowly rubbing against her clit again. She pretended to not notice herself doing it even though she was alone in the room. Try as she might to resist, X gave in to the temptations. Certainly it would be okay to fantasize just once, right? No one would know. It wasn’t like it was hurting anybody.

She started rubbing slowly, wanting to take her time and not rush. The heat in her body returned and she start whining again. She imagined the mysterious figure on top of her, grinding against her ass, their chest pressed against her back for support. What it would feel like if they licked along her shoulder and nibbled on her neck. 

X’s body had never felt so weak and aroused while she was masturbating. She had no idea fantasizing about the mysterious figure could make her feel this way. Any shame she still harbored was shoved to the back of her mind as a lust she never knew she could experience took over. It felt far too good.

She went farther with her fantasy now. Imagining them grinding more roughly, their hand sliding down to her groin and replacing her own. The other hand would slide under her chest and rub her nipple, pinching and rolling it in their fingers. 

X started playing with her own breast, the sensations against her nipples sending electric shocks of pleasure straight down to her groin. She was sweating now and breathing harder, her whines getting louder. She wanted more.

She thought about them holding her tight, just as aroused and filled with desire as she was. Their heavy breathing in her ear as their hair tickled her neck. How she’d hide her face in her pillow, shy from all the sultry noises she was making, but secretly hoping they turned the mysterious figure on even more. Them moving their hand to rub against her lower belly and slip their fingers beneath her underwear…

X had never felt so lewd as her own fingers were sliding beneath her underwear to match her fantasy. She never masturbated like this before. In the past she worried about getting her hands dirty, or how uncomfortable she was directly touching such an intimate part of herself. Now she wanted nothing more than to be touched down there. She tugged her nipple while she brushed her fingers against the soft pubes that covered her groin. 

She gulped before slipping two of her fingers between the lips of her pussy. She was a lot wetter than the dampness of her underwear lead her to believe. Her pussy was extremely slick with cum. She slid her fingers over her vagina to coat them in the slimy substance and slide it upwards to her clit. The lubrication intensified her pleasure in ways she wouldn’t have imagined. She pinched harder on her nipple and humped against her fingers, not caring anymore how messy she got her hand and underwear.

She was so close to cumming. She imagined the mysterious figure grunting loudly and rutting desperately against her, ready for both of them to cum together. She wanted to slip her fingers into her vagina, but decided that would be pushing herself too far. She had never had anything in there before. But in her mind she imagined the mysterious figure pumping their fingers in and out of her as her arousal coated their hand in slimy cum. How she’d make a mess of them from how wet she’d gotten. She imagined the dark figure admiring her depravity and fucking her with even more vigor, pinching her nipple harder, both of them overcome by their lust.

Her body was on fire from such dirty thoughts. Her whines turned into loud moans that she tried to muffle in her pillow as she humped her hand furiously. Her fantasy jumped from one idea to next until she sighed loudly as an orgasm she never experienced before exploded through her body. She could feel her pussy convulsing strongly with each wave of sweet pleasure that consumed her. Her entire body felt like jelly as she collapsed her weight into her bed and let out a dreamy sigh. She continued rubbing slowly to ride out her orgasm. She came several more times before they started to slow and drop in intensity. 

She kept her hand in her underwear, enjoying the dreamy state of her afterglow. It was the greatest orgasm she had ever had in her life. Eventually she forced herself to get up and wash her hands. She changed into a fresh pair of underwear after realizing her current pair was completely soaked.

Once she returned to her bed she crawled under the covers. However, she continued fantasizing. She imagined the two laying together cozy in her bed. How she’d appreciate their beauty every moment they were together. How it would feel to have them spoon her and hold her close, whispering in her ear how good it all was before they dozed off together. X pulled her covers up to her face and curled up, a dopey smile covering her face. She blushed thinking of how this had all been from imagining someone she didn’t know, but she did promise herself it was just this one time. She wouldn’t do it again. She let herself enjoy her afterglow without a care in the world.

She continued daydreaming until she began dozing off, entering a peaceful sleep she hadn’t experienced in a long time since joining the Hunters.


	7. Bubble Bath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> X is a hot mess

Regular meetings were conducted with Sigma to maintain communication between the hunters and city about the appropriate treatment of mavericks. The meeting went fine for the most part. A mention here about hunters being more careful around humans, a mention there about better safety protocols for humans in danger zones. As the meeting came to its end the usual captain reviews came up. 

One by one the board went over each individual captain’s review. Most were praise for their work, with the occasional advice for improvement. Storm Eagle received a majority of the praise, and Zero in particular received positive comments about her recent mission with Sigma.

Vile sat in her chair smirking, observing Sigma grow tense as the city board approached the end of the captain list. She knew full well what was coming, per the usual. 

“Absolutely unacceptable!”

“The FIFTH time this month!”

“We cannot have someone so absolutely reckless representing the hunters in any way!”

Shouts and strong words from prominent members of Abel’s city board and maverick hunter captains filled the meeting room. 

“Yes, I understand. No, it won’t happen again. Yes I know I’ve said it before.”

Sigma tried his best to calm them.

Vile’s missions were nearly always successful. However, she was careless and neglected any rules or laws she was meant to follow. A mission headed by Vile always ended in destruction. But what did they expect? She couldn’t help herself. Why would someone with specs as high as hers not use them to their full potential with each outing? It’s not like she ever had the opportunity at Hunter base. Even her favorite weapons were too powerful for the simulation room.

“Sigma, we are serious this time. She cannot continue to lead missions anymore. She’s hardly a hunter! Just look at her!”

Vile kicked back in her chair and waved. The representative’s face turned red with rage at such a blatant sign of disrespect. This was the last straw for him as he lost his temper.

“You… You maverick! You’re nothing but an outdated war machine! You should have been disassembled with every other machine after that company takeover! Do you have any idea the kind of damage you- HRK!”

The representative didn’t have the opportunity to finish as Vile jumped across the table and ripped him out of her chair. Her face had flashed with rage the second he dared to call her an outdated war machine.

“She’s gone maverick!”

“Somebody do something! Help!”

“Sigma, end this at once!”

Immediately Sigma and Storm Eagle jumped forward to pry Vile off the representative and hold her back.

“Let go of me! These useless humans don’t know how to be grateful for anything!”

Sigma and Storm Eagle tightened their hold even more to keep Vile under control. Forcibly restraining her only managed to trigger flashbacks of her former life. A whole batch of violent threats directed at the representatives escaped her mouth. They were lucky that Vile hadn’t equipped herself with her cannon that day. 

Zero reeled back in her chair, caught off guard by how everything escalated. The meetings never got this out of hand even when Vile was particularly brutish on her missions. One second she was dawdling in her chair and the next she was pinned over the table trying to murder someone. What should she do!? Should she say something!?!

Vile was beginning to calm down and ended her tirade, still staring daggers at the representative cowering near the wall. Sigma and Storm Eagles hauled her off the table, pinning both her arms back and keeping a strong hold on her neck. 

Her eyes were frantically darting around the room now. 

Shit.

She didn’t mean to snap like that. What could a small pathetic human even do to her? It all happened so quickly and now she was in a dire situation. No one could see her shocked eyes behind her helmet. She didn't mean for this to happen! What had she gotten herself into!? 

Without thinking and not knowing what else to do she turned her head towards Zero.

Certainly Zero could find a way to get her out of this.

However, Zero was still hesitating. Sigma and the representatives were now in a screaming match with each other. Should she speak out? How the FUCK would she defend Vile after THAT? But Vile was still her friend, wasn’t she? The pressure was overwhelming as she quickly tried to think up a plan. It was too much to handle. She had to do something though! Throwing her thoughts aside she darted up suddenly to try and defend Vile. 

But it was too late. 

“She didn’t mea-“

“SIT, Zero” Sigma commanded.

Zero clenched her teeth. Sigma’s patience long since reached its limit, and once that happened there was nothing that could change his mind.

“Vile, as of today, you are hereby demoted and stripped of your captain title.You are suspended until further notice while I decide on the appropriate disciplinary action for someone as incompetent as yourself!”

Vile could hardly believe what she was hearing. She looked at Zero again, but she turned away sharply pretending she hadn’t even acknowledged her gaze. Vile’s body went rigid with shock at the rejection from the only person she considered anything close to a friend. Her mouth was wide as she breathed deeply, feeling lightheaded and unreal.

People filed out of the room refusing to acknowledge her. Sigma and Storm Eagle released their grasp on her and also departed. Zero was the last to leave. She paused at the door for a second, thinking. What could she have done in the first place? Everything they said about Vile was true. She just proved it herself. She was out of control and destructive, not to mention how poorly she treated X. Vile more than deserved what she had coming. Still, Zero couldn’t help but feel bad. Her foot turned slightly as she prepared to ask Vile if she was okay, but changed her mind at the last second and exited the room.

Vile's expression was blank and body numb as she slipped back into her chair. She sat for hours until the lights in the building went out. She was alone in the darkness before managing to get herself up and leave. Her movements were mechanical as she staggered down the hall heading to her room. She tried not to think about what happened.

Because it hadn’t happened, right?

She was just imagining things. Dreaming.

Vile was no longer heading for her room. Instead she wandered down the hall. She couldn’t help sparing a glance at the infirmary as she passed by. Even beating up X wouldn’t make her feel better this time.

She was stumbling and felt weak, her armor feeling like it weighed ten times more than it did. She was hunching forward as if she’d fall over any second.

Her steps slowed as she haulted in place, her legs about to give out.

Then she fell face-first on the floor.

Days passed by as she laid there, unmoving. Her energy was dangerously low, and her body collected dust. She didn’t care anymore. 

Occasionally a hunter or two would pass by, jeering at her. Everyone heard the news of her demotion. Vile wasn’t popular with anyone at Hunter base, though few bothered to retaliate due to her power. Once word got around of her vulnerable state many took advantage of it to dish out payback. She was knocked around, taunted, whatever people could come up with to get back at her. Had she been her normal self they wouldn’t be left standing, yet here she was. Zero and X would probably find out and come to taunt her too. Even the thought of X disrespecting her didn’t spark any rage.

As her energy reached 2% she hoped she would simply shut down forever and no one would bother reactivating her again.

***

X was happily humming down the hall while shuffling through a checklist in her VR vision. She’d been checking equipment all day. There was only one left to check, an old piece of equipment stored away in a part of base anyone hardly ever went through. Once she finished she could relax for the day.

She turned around a corner, then…

CLUNK

X jumped back when she realized she kicked something, then did a double-take when she realized what.

Vile was stretched on the floor. Her armor was dented all over and covered with gunk, dust, and oil. X hadn’t seen Vile for almost two weeks, and she savored the peace. Zero gave her a summary about what happened at the meeting but was reluctant to give more details. Regardless, it was a hot topic of gossip all over the base and all sorts of rumors popped up about Vile’s sudden absence. Some said she was sent off to be scrapped, others claimed she went maverick and ran away, and some even said she simply collapsed on the floor and never moved.

Turns out there was truth to at least one of those rumors.

X tip-toed around her, wondering if she should do something. Vile didn’t move or make any sound to acknowledge her. She remembered how Vile abused her during their training session, so she decided to ignore her and continue running her errand. 

She entered a room and checked out some old machinery. A bit rusty, but still seemed good. She checked it off her list. Then she stood in the room for several more minutes wondering what she was going to do. She felt bad for Vile. But she felt bad for everyone! Vile was terrible to her. Even X knew she didn’t deserve her help. Yet Vile was a mess right now and didn’t even say a word to her. But if she could she probably would have!

Reasons for and against helping Vile ran through X’s mind as she tried to decide on a course of action that didn’t leave her feeling guilty. Finally she decided: She wasn’t going to help Vile.

X stood straight, firm in her decision as she left the room. She held her head high and marched proudly by Vile, not even sparing her a second glance. 

Vile would be fine anyways. She was strong.

Even if she’d been there for days.

Clearly beaten around.

And X could sense her energy was low.

…

X’s mind quickly flashed the day she helped reenergize Vile. She’d been upset that she drained all her energy, but she did bring X back in one piece. And Vile trusted her enough to let her do it in the first place.

Her steps slowed until she stopped. She groaned to herself before turning around and praying to whatever greater power existed that she was making the right choice.

She carefully inched closer to Vile, worried she might jump up at any moment and attack her. She circled around her as if she were a snake ready to strike, then tapped her a couple times with her foot. It didn’t earn any reaction, and X felt if that of all things didn’t make her attack then it must be safe to touch her.

She knelt near Vile to better assess her. The dents and scratches on her armor were deep. People weren’t just knocking her around but severely damaging her. X wondered what kind of injuries she sustained underneath. All the gunk on her seemed to be a mixture of various unsavory things, namely E-tank fluid, food, and she was pretty sure people were spitting on her. The smell of rot and mold was even worse up close. She knew Vile wasn’t very popular with anyone in the Hunters, herself included. Yet X started feeling bad that she nearly left her behind in such a sorry state, even if she deserved it. 

“Vile, are you okay?”

No response.

“I can… still sense your energy readings you know. They’re low again…”

Still no response.

X rested her hand on Vile’s helmet to turn it to the side. 

Her energy levels were too low for her body to process an E-tank into the appropriate energy. X wished they were somewhere private so they could interface with their cores again. Someone could walk in on them out here though, and it was the last thing either would want. Plus Vile was so dirty that X would rather have the chance to clean her up first. She didn’t want to dirty her core.

She grabbed Vile’s arms and gave an experimental tug. She was really, really heavy. X was able to move her though. She quickly poked her head around the corridor, then continued dragging Vile to the nearest elevator. She was thankful the day was a slow one. There weren’t many people out, and she didn’t want them seeing Vile being dragged around by her. Once in the elevator, they made it to the floor where X’s room was. She unlocked her door and dragged Vile in, accidentally bonking her head on the edge, then immediately locked it.

Vile’s body was limp as X released her arms. She tried to lay her comfortably on the floor, but it was difficult with all her armor on. If she was going to wash Vile, she might as well remove it.

Vile was normally dirty to begin with, refusing to bathe half the time even though she kept her ride armor meticulously clean. Mud and blood stained her armor from long before the meeting ever took place. X could tell that her current state was far beyond what even Vile would allow though. She took each piece off one by one. They were incredibly heavy and she assumed this was where a majority of Vile’s weight came from. She removed her undersuit too, trying not to let her eyes linger.

Her helmet was the last piece of armor left. X admitted she was always curious what Vile's face looked like underneath. Apparently most people never saw it, and even Zero claimed to not know. With a hint of eagerness X pulled it off.

Then immediately slammed a hand over her mouth to muffle her shriek.

She remembered this face.

That night in her room.

Had Vile…

“U-Uh I gotta go get something really quick! I’ll be right back!” X blurted out before rushing to her bedroom to collect herself.

Vile was the one in her room that night. There was no doubt. X could never forget that face.

X was blushing furiously, both elated and panicked. All those dreams. All those fantasies night after night. They were all about Vile this entire time. 

She had to spend several minutes catching her breath, not sure if she was excited or about to faint. She reentered the room and cleared her throat, then proceeded to try and carry Vile to the bathroom. Even without her armor Vile was still very heavy, but manageable enough for X.

X placed her in the tub, careful to avoid bumping her head on the edge, then went to retrieve several soaps and wash cloths. She filled the tub and quickly scrubbed Vile around her back and legs, the water quickly turning dark and murky. She drained it and filled it again, repeating the steps a couple more times until the water ran clear. Vile’s eyes remained open, but they looked distant. X tried not to think about who she was washing, but each time she washed near her face she felt her body fill with heat.

She guessed one more wash ought to be enough, but she was having trouble washing the hard-to-reach spots. Leaning over the tub didn’t give her the best angles, and Vile simply sat there not helping at all.

Perhaps…

No.

No way.

Yet this would probably be her only opportunity… and she really wanted to…

It was to help Vile after all!

“Vile, is it… okay for me to get in the tub with you to wash you better?”

Vile, once again, made no sound or move. 

X groaned in frustration. She was just going to have to go through with it and hope for the best. Assuming she had the a-ok, she started removing her armor. She placed it neatly in a pile away from the tub, placing her helmet on top. All she had to do was remove her undersuit, then she’d be completely naked… 

Maybe she could just get in the tub in her undersuit? Or maybe she had a bikini around somewhere…

X gulped and stripped her undersuit as fast as possible, nearly falling over from the speed. She wasn’t going to let herself change her mind now. 

She was completely naked and alone in her bathroom, with the exception of Vile who was also equally naked. Minus the part with Vile, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Just another day taking a relaxing bath.

…

This was a crazy idea. What was she even thinking? It’s not like Vile was anything close to the romantic person she fantasized in her mind. Yet she was extremely curious…

That’s right.

She was just curious.

X felt herself ease a bit. Of course, she was always curious about everything. The only reason she wanted to be naked in a tub with Vile was because she simply wondered what it would be like. 

Simple curiosity…

X didn’t believe the load of shit she was telling herself for a single second, but it did encourage her to make her move and get into the tub.

She never took her eyes off Vile as she slipped her toes in. Then her whole leg. Then another leg. The water actually felt pretty nice as it wrapped around her body. She sat in the tub behind Vile, her body halfway submerged. She pulled her knees up and took in a deep breath. 

She actually did it.

She was alone, naked, and in a tub with Vile.

X could feel her insides flutter with a strange mixture of anxiety and excitement. She promised herself she would only do what she told Vile she’d do, so she stopped herself from daydreaming and returned her focus to the task at hand. The previous couple washes had managed to get most of the gunk off of Vile. All she needed to do was wash her hair and rub her down with soap, then she’d be fresh and clean. X dunked a clean wash cloth into the water and squirted soap onto it.

She touched Vile’s back and noticed it twitch, immediately pausing. So Vile was reacting to her now. Vile eased herself back, surprising X. She decided this must be a good sign that she was returning to normal. Mostly normal anyways. She washed Vile in earnest, no longer anxious. Her face was determined as she focused on cleaning her properly, then washing her hair.

X stole a few touches here and there, mostly to compare Vile’s body to her own. Her body had various creases and crevices in it making her look more robotic. This was in contrast to X’s body, which was almost identical to a human’s in appearance. X rubbed Vile’s shoulders a bit hoping the contact might help improve her mood.

Meanwhile, Vile was throwing a tantrum in her mind. If she had the energy she wouldn’t be letting any of this take place! How dare X pity her! She was doing plenty of that for herself!

Vile leaned back as she fussed in her head, hoping X would rub her shoulder again.

Once X finished scrubbing all the areas she was comfortable with she wondered how she was going to ask Vile to let her wash elsewhere. She blushed trying to spit her question out.

“Vile, is it okay for me to um… to wash you… I mean around… you’re really dirty around there and all I mean if you want to clean it I wouldn’t stop you I just want to ask and all especially since it’s your body and not mine but I can help you if you want and…”

She was speaking quickly and endlessly and it was beginning to drive Vile crazy. 

“UUUGH, I don’t care!”

Vile groaned out loudly, her voice muffled and filled with static. X shut her mouth quickly and stared at Vile surprised. She didn’t expect a reply. 

Vile felt X return to washing her, this time in silence. She sighed, much happier without all the talking. She still twitched at each touch, but she was getting used to the contact. She felt X cautiously swipe the cloth over her pec and hesitate to move downward. She mustered up just enough energy to yank X’s hand over her breast to drill it into her head it was okay. 

That last bit of movement had lowered her energy to 1%, and her body collapsed against X. 

“Umph!”

X yelped out as Vile’s head painfully bumped into her face. She rubbed her aching nose and tried to push Vile back up. At the least it knocked her out of another ill-timed fantasy. She washed Vile’s breasts, careful to avoid scrubbing her nipples too hard. She continued taking notes of her body, noting that even with a body more robotic than her own she had details such as chest and belly hair. She swiped her hands a few more times than necessary across her chest. The hair felt nice to touch. She followed the trail of hair downwards over her belly. For someone who was so intimidating Vile’s belly was surprisingly soft. X peaked at her quickly. At 1% Vile had passed out, entering an emergency sleep mode. 

X blushed shyly as she roamed her hands across Vile’s belly. It didn’t feel much different than her own. It was certainly as plump. She ran her hands along Vile’s arms and legs, finding she really enjoyed the feeling and look of hair on Vile. She felt like she was on a cloud as she pressed herself against her back, wrapping her arms around her. Vile’s whole body was as handsome as her face. 

X’s body was overheating. She wanted to roam her hands all over Vile. She didn’t understand it at all. In her mind she kept reminding herself Vile wasn’t her fantasy, yet it did nothing to ward off her longing. The heat made her feel like she was melting into Vile as she held her closer and more intimately. She wanted more of their skin to touch as her pussy slickened with arousal. X started grinding against her without thinking. It felt like heaven and she moaned sweetly with each thrust, her breathing turning labored and raspy. She needed it. She needed Vile. Needed her to bite down on her and squeeze her sensitive breasts. To pin her down and grind against her until she screamed out her name and they both…

X snapped her eyes open and quickly pulled herself away.

What was she doing!? What was she thinking!?

X buried her face in her hands, not believing how flustered Vile of all people was making her. Her cheeks were on fire. Guilt hit her hard as she wondered what had gotten into her. It was completely inappropriate and she knew better. She promised herself it wouldn’t happen again. Vile trusted her after all, right?

She returned to scrubbing Vile’s belly. She could control herself. There was only one place left to clean anyways. Her hand swiped over Vile’s lower belly. She could do this. She had to do this! She was just doing a favor anyways. She didn’t have to make this weird. X’s face filled with determination and she quickly scrubbed around Vile’s crotch. 

She did it! And Vile’s pubes felt really nice to touch too!

Shit, she made it weird.

X buried her face in her hands again, wondering what was wrong with her.

She quickly washed herself as a distraction in order to regain her composure. Something about bathing together with Vile in her tub made her feel giddy though, and she splashed around happily like a bird in a birdbath. 

Once finished she decided to drain the tub. She carefully moved Vile’s head down and stepped out. As the tub drained she splashed some fresh water on her to get any leftover soap off. She looked her over one more time to make sure she didn’t miss any spots, then smiled proudly at herself. She did a perfect job cleaning Vile off, even with days’ worth of who-knows-what on her.

X grabbed a towel and dried herself. She managed to clean herself pretty well too, though soaking in the tub with Vile had rubbed her scent all over herself. It was musky and mechanical, nothing like her floral scented soaps. She found herself mesmerized by it and spent a few seconds carefully sniffing her towel to take in more of it.

Then buried her face into her hands again for the third time.

X stumbled and nearly slipped as she tried to stop acting like a weirdo and get some towels for Vile. She laid one out on the floor, then heaved Vile out of the tub. She laid her out on it, then using another towel dried her off everywhere, finishing by ruffling up her hair. 

She examined her eye enhancement curiously. Vile was asleep and her normal eye closed, but the robotic one remained open. The bulging eye was an unnerving sight, as if she could snap awake at any moment or was watching her. X traced a finger around the socket, careful to avoid smudging the eye portion. She wondered why she never bothered to fix the artificial skin around it. In any case, the eye fascinated her.

X was beginning to feel drowsy and stood. She was going to need to psych herself up to heave Vile out and carry her to her bed. She quickly stretched her arms before squatting down and loading Vile onto her back. X grunted with each step she took towards her bedroom, thankful that her bathroom was connected to it.

Did she get heavier or something?

With her last ounce of strength X tossed her onto her bed, a little more roughly than intended. She knelt down and huffed trying to catch her breath. As much as she found enjoyment from carrying her around, she was glad to have her off her back.

She walked around the bed, arranging the sheets and pillows properly for Vile to sleep. She pulled out a charging cable from the headboard and plugged it into Vile’s neck. She scanned her, confirming she was charging properly. She wouldn’t be fully charged come morning, but it should be more than enough energy for Vile to manage herself again.

X stood near Vile for a moment, hesitant to leave. This was the first and likely last time she’d ever see her without her armor on. X leaned over the bed to brush the hair out of her face, the feature she admired most of all. She wanted to make sure every detail was stored in her memory. Her eyes, her nose, her lips. She truly was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen in her life. She doubted she’d ever meet anyone so beautiful to her again.

She caressed her face one last time before departing for the couch. 

CLUNK

She stumbled over the pile of Vile’s armor she left on the floor. She completely forgotten about it. It needed a lot of cleaning too, and she didn’t want all her hard work to go to waste if Vile were to throw on a bunch of dirty armor. She was so tired though. She grumbled to herself, glanced back at Vile charging in her bed, then groaned. She’d gone this far, so she might as well. It didn’t appear Vile cleaned it very much in the first place, so it probably needed a proper wash as well. X didn’t have anything important to do tomorrow anyways.

X dragged the pieces of armor and necessary cleaning supplies to her couch. The slow repetitive motions of rubbing the armor clean calmed her, and she entered a meditative-like state. She was tired, but content. How strange that her crush would end this way. And there was no way to predict how Vile would start treating her from here. She probably wouldn’t be too happy when she woke up tomorrow.

X smiled to herself. Vile may hate her even more after this or never talk to her again. What a mess her feelings became.

Regardless, X was glad it happened.


	8. Me Duele

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of ZeroVile this chapter, plus XVile. Hope you enjoy~

X’s room was silent as both she and Vile were sound asleep. She finished cleaning all the armor and promptly passed out on the couch afterwards. Vile’s expression was peaceful, but small murmurs escaped her mouth as old memories played in her mind while she slept.

***

“Vile! Behind you!”

Vile’s eyes flashed wide as she managed to duck in time, the massive fist of a maverick mechaniloid just barely missing her. She rolled away and quickly launched a missile from her knee. The body of the mechaniloid exploded in smoke as shrapnel darted everywhere. Through the clouds the familiar sound of Zero trotting could be heard and Vile stood up to meet her.

“Thought you were a goner there for a second. You starting to space out on me?” Zero teased. 

Suddenly two more mechaniloids appeared, one behind each hunter. Zero prepared her buster and Vile prepared her cannon, both firing in unison as the machines leapt into the air to strike. Both continued standing their guard until the smoke cleared, then relaxed.

“Haha, wow. Good job, huh?” Zero turned around and smirked, giving Vile a thumbs up.

Vile chuckled boisterously in response, glad Zero couldn’t see her blush through her helmet. Her core always felt like it skipped a beat whenever she gave her one of her cocky smiles. Zero phoned in to headquarters that they finished off the last of the mavericks and were ready to be teleported back. Vile took the time to admire her proud figure adorned in her battled damaged armor before she felt themselves being teleported.

Sigma approached them with open arms and a smile as they materialized.

“So what did you two think of your first independent mission? It seems like you had an interesting time out there.”

“Hmph. Hardly a challenge at all. Why’d it take so long to decide we were ready for this anyways?” Vile boasted.

“Yeah. You trying to keep all the fun to yourself?” Zero quipped along with her.

Sigma laughed, placing a hand on each of their shoulders and walking them out of the teleporter room.

“I truly am proud of you two. The last hunter who excelled and rose through the ranks so quickly was Storm Eagle. The second he was activated he was an excellent hunter. Seems like you’re beginning to follow in his footsteps, Zero.” 

Sigma grinned proudly at Zero and squeezed her shoulder. In the corner of his eye he saw Vile with her head turned away, sensing her carefully observing the two with a hint of jealousy.

“Haha, don’t worry Vile. I’m just as proud of you as well. A little reckless, but there’s certainly no doubting your power and cunning. Your strategy for this mission went more smoothly than even some of my own. We’re going to have to have another… ‘talk’ about you ignoring certain orders again, but you’re both well on your way to becoming the new captains this organization needs. To think you two have only been here for a few months.”

Vile gave a ‘hmph’ in response. She soaked in the praise Sigma was giving her even if she knew he was going to give her another massive rant tomorrow.

He walked with them down the hall until they arrived at an intersection. Zero and Vile saluted their commander as both parties went their separate ways for the night.

“Vile, do you really think we’re going to be captains one day?”

“Pfft, of course. You heard what he said. Plus you’ve seen how the other hunters look at us too. All the other A class hunters act like they’re going to piss their pants whenever they have to talk to us.”

“Heh, I suppose you’re right. Did you see what I did to that one A class this morning?”

“The one that had his helmet jammed on so tight it got stuck?”

“Yup, that one.”

“That poor guy is still stuck in the infirmary trying to get it off.”

Both laughed together in the empty hall and continued walking. The Maverick Hunters weren’t a friendly bunch to them. The stigma against Zero for his past and the stigma against Vile for his destructive and often disobedient behavior made the two outsiders among the base. For a short period the other hunters and a good chunk of the captains frequently bullied or harassed them with their passive aggressiveness. It didn’t last long once the two made known just how powerful they were. Once they realized just how strong they were compared to everyone else, both took full advantage of it. Together, they were unstoppable. 

Vile twitched as Zero place her hand on her back, rubbing it up and down.

“At least we got each other here, right Vile?” 

“Of course.” There was that smile again, the one that made Vile feel like she was on a cloud. sHe needed a distraction. “So do you want us to sleep in your bed tonight or my pod?”

“I’m pretty sure we should sleep in my bed tonight. You’re starting to stink again.” Zero pinched her nose and stumbled away from Vile in an exaggerated manner.

“You fucking dick.” Vile smiled and gave her a hard kick, nearly knocking her to the floor. “I’ll have you know I smell just fine. See?” She grabbed Zero in a headlock and shoved her face into her armpit.

“Auuugh, Vile! Let… Go! God, it really does stink. Vile!” 

Vile was intent on keeping her head in place. Not able to bear the smell anymore Zero charged and rammed themselves into the wall, knocking the breath out of Vile. Her helmet flew off as Zero proceeded to pin her.

“Haha! What are you going to do now that I got you…” Zero froze at the sight of Vile’s robotic eye staring straight back at her.

“…” 

Vile had never shown her face to anyone before, much less Zero. She froze, uncharacteristic of herself. Even though the two had become close friends she still never felt comfortable to show it. If anything, Zero being her friend drove her to hide it even more. She didn’t want the only person she liked to think she was ugly or damaged. Especially compared to Zero’s body being so near flawless.

She quickly tried to shove Zero away but she refused to unpin her. Desperate, she started trying to brush her hair over her face. Without warning Zero smacked her hand away and brushed her hair back, intensely staring at her. Vile’s breathing quickened.

“…pretty ugly, right?” She chuckled nervously.

“…”

Vile gulped, forgetting that without her helmet on Zero could see every emotion that appeared on her face. She knew Zero thought she was ugly now. 

“It’s…”

Here it comes.

“Cool.”

Zero unpinned her and started poking and prodding at her face. Vile was too shocked to really care and simply stood there as she played with her face.

“So this is what you look like under that bucket of yours! I’ve never seen an eye like this before. With your eyes being so red I was thinking you didn’t even have an actual face under there.”

Zero started running a thumb across Vile’s lips and brought her face closer to examine them. Vile stopped breathing, overwhelmed by everything that was happening.

“You have such cute lips…” 

Vile wanted to die. This was too much. She shoved Zero away with a harsh push and stumbled over to her helmet on the floor and slammed it back on her head. 

“Ah! Vile, I’m sorry!” Zero was so mesmerized by Vile’s face that she hadn’t noticed her panicked expression until she shoved her away, and now she was feeling awful. "I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine!” 

Zero fell silent and looked at her hurt and guilty. Vile didn’t mean to bark at her like that! She was just nervous. And confused. And nervous. And very confused!

“I mean… it’s fine I just… UGH. Let’s just go to your room already!”

An awkward silence settled as the continued walking. Zero wanted to say something but didn’t know what, and Vile was trying to make herself forget anything even happened. She didn’t know what to make of it. For months she tried repressing the blooming feelings she had for Zero. She wasn’t even able properly process basic emotions still since she was freed from her old life. Did Zero have feelings for her too? Or was she just being weird? What was she even feeling? Why was she programmed with emotions in the first place???

Yet little by little, curiosity replaced her distress. As the two walked slowly Vile had time to cool down and collect her thoughts. Zero continued to sulk, avoiding eye contact with her. Maybe… She could…

Vile walked closer to Zero, needing to close the distance for her plan to work. She let her hand bump into Zero’s a couple times as they walked. She could see Zero perking up slightly, quickly glancing at her. She took it as a good sign. Her mouth was dry as she swallowed nervously, lightly holding the tip of Zero’s fingers.

Zero was fully alert now, her eyes wide as she blushed furiously. There was no way she could look Vile directly in the face now. Was she… Trying to hold her hand? She couldn’t believe this was happening. Holy shit.

Excitement rushed through Vile’s body after realizing Zero didn’t immediately reject her. Her breathing quickened as she grabbed more of Zero’s whole hand, letting them swing back and forth as they walked. She wanted to thread their fingers together, to firmly grasp one another’s hands as partners. She wasn’t a wimp! It was just hands, why was she even getting so nervous in the first place! But what if the other hunters saw her like this? No… If she wanted to hold someone’s hand then she was going to hold it!!!

Zero was completely oblivious to the internal monologue Vile was psyching herself up with. Suddenly she felt Vile trying to thread their fingers together. Zero partially covered her face with her free hand as she threaded her fingers back. They awkwardly danced their fingers around trying to find the correct position for holding. Once they found it, she loudly exhaled a breath she was holding and squeezed Vile’s hand. 

Vile was smiling excitedly to herself. She did it! Of course she could do it. What was the big deal anyways? How stupid the Vile from minutes ago was. What a dumbass.

…

Truthfully, her heart started racing so fast when Zero squeezed her hand that she felt dizzy. Very, very dizzy. Her vision was blurring, making it hard to walk as she battled her lightheadedness. And it was suddenly difficult to breathe. Zero noticed her slowing down and turned around to ask what was wrong when she suddenly felt Vile’s hand violently shaking with her own. She stumbled to her knees on the floor, ripping her helmet off as she began severely overheating and hyperventilating. 

“Vile!”

Zero knelt down to help her, never letting go of her hand.

“Vile! What’s wrong!? What’s happening!?”

Her voice sounded distant to Vile, who wanted to reply but couldn’t get the words to form in her mouth. The air felt stuck in her throat.

Zero was looking around frantically for help even though she knew nobody was awake at this hour. “Here, I’ll take you to Lifesaver and he can-“

“No!”

Finally Vile got a word through. It took all her focus just to shout a simple no, but the message came across clearly to Zero. She looked worriedly at her, but decided to listen. She did notice that Vile seemed to be getting better rather than worse. Her eyes looked glazed over as she stared off into nothing trying to get her breathing under control. Sweat dripped from her face. Vile squeezed Zero’s hand, and she squeezed back letting her know she was still there. 

Moments passed until Vile finally calmed down from her panic attack. Even though her energy was nearly at 80% she felt exhausted, both physically and mentally. She didn’t remember how she ended up leaning against Zero’s chest, or when Zero had started rubbing her back, but it felt nice now that she was conscious of it. She rubbed her thumb across Zero’s knuckles, their hands still intertwined.

She was going to tear herself apart later when she had the energy for it, but for now she just wanted to rest. 

“Vile, I’m going to carry you back to my room. Is that okay?”

“Yeah…” She weakly whispered.

Zero smiled, glad to know That Vile was able to respond normally. She gave Vile’s hand one more squeeze before letting go, immediately missing its warmth. She picked Vile up bridal style, letting her head rest against her chest. She picked up Vile’s helmet and handed it to her, which she held against her belly. Her body was limp in Zero’s hold and her eyes still slightly glazed over. 

Vile never felt so pathetic, and in front of Zero no less. What a fool she made of herself. Zero slowly walked down the hall while she rested in her arms, careful not to jostle her too much. She felt so small and delicate in Zero’s hold. She didn’t want to seem that way to Zero though. They were partners, the strongest hunters in this whole useless base. But it was a little nice, she guessed. She normally hated whenever someone touched her or tried restraining her in any way. With Zero, she felt safe. 

Vile could hear the humming of Zero’s core as her head rested against her. It was soothing as she tried to fight off the drowsiness that was enveloping her. She was on the brink of shutting down for the night when she felt Zero stop, realizing they were at the door to her room.

“We’re here. You still awake?”

Vile quietly grunted. She wanted to be awake, but her body was clearly against it. She felt Zero’s chest vibrate as she chuckled. Vile tilted her face up to look at her, wondering what she was laughing at. Their eyes met and gazed at one another, neither sure what to say. Zero was the first to move, resting her face in Vile’s hair and breathing in her scent. She didn’t know why, but she enjoyed it. It was familiar to her. 

She was rather certain she heard Vile call her a weirdo under her breath, but it only filled her with more affection. She was happy. If she hadn’t met Vile she knew she’d feel alone here. And soon they were going to become captains together if Sigma’s praise was anything to go by. She moved her head downwards, their foreheads resting against one another. She closed her eyes to listen to Vile’s breathing. There was something she wanted to do before this moment ended.

Apprehension gripped her, but carefully and tentatively she moved her lips close to Vile’s forehead. Vile could feel her heart trying to race again with what little energy she had left. Her mouth was so close that she could feel each warm breath on her skin. 

Then she felt it.

Zero’s warms lips pressed against her to give a gentle, chaste kiss. A pleasant warmness washed over Vile’s body as she reluctantly drifted off to sleep, the last thing she heard being Zero’s door swishing open.

***

Vile groaned and rubbed her face as she woke up. It was an odd feeling to fall asleep in a dream and wake up in the real world. It was something she was going to have to ponder about later as she tried to remember where she was. It definitely wasn’t Zero’s room.

She quickly propped herself up as she remembered what happened last night. X had found her! This was X’s room! What was she…

Oh yeah.

Vile plopped back into the bed, smooshing her face with both hands and then ruffling her hair in frustration. X had found her and given her a bath. Naked. And that horny fucker was in there grinding against her ass. Even at such a low energy level she managed to come in and out of consciousness, and she very clearly felt X groping her everywhere and moaning like a cat in heat. Why couldn’t she just lead a normal life of destruction? She didn’t do anything to deserve this. Mostly.

Still, she felt… grateful. She knew X wouldn’t mention anything to anyone, and she was feeling better now. She sat up and spaced out for several minutes before throwing the covers off and getting up, ready to get her undersuit and armor back on. She found her undersuit in the bathroom. She walked into the room X was sleeping in and eyed her freshly polished armor in a pile near the couch.

Great, she cleaned all her armor too.

As she put it on she kept glancing at X’s sleeping form on the couch. She tried to ignore her, but lately she was becoming more curious about X. In what ways she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t like it. She put her helmet on, then squatted down and stared at X for several minutes. Why was this so fascinating…

An idea appeared in her mind and she smirked mischievously to herself. She pinched X’s nose, watching her struggle to breathe then wake up gasping and choking for air. As she coughed she looked around trying to find the culprit, only to come face to face with Vile. 

“Vile! You’re awake!” X smiled, then quickly frowned. “Ah, s-sorry about last night. I hope you’re not mad…?” She nervously waved her hands around, hoping nothing bad would happen and completely unaware that Vile knew about what she did in the tub.

Vile only stared silently at her before giving a loud ‘hmph.’

“I’m leaving now. You better keep your mouth shut about this.” Vile knew she would, but didn’t know what to say to her outside of threats.

“Of course! Heh…” 

Vile stood in front of X’s door ready to leave, but quickly took note of the awkward smile X gave her.

Cute.

Wait, no. Shit not again.

FUCK.

Vile growled at herself for the thought. She also couldn’t make herself leave yet. Uuugh. She was feeling things again. Should she even say anything to X. She already said some words to her. She said like ten of them.

“Vile, is something wron-“

“THANK YOU.”

Then she slammed the door open and angrily dashed out. X sat up in the couch confused at how odd Vile just acted. Something felt… different between the two now. She rubbed her eyes, dark bags visible underneath and ready to fall back to sleep. Maybe she should take today off…

Vile ran a good distance before slowing down and walking. It was very early in the morning and no one was really wandering the halls yet. She had a long day ahead of her and decided heading back to her own pod to finish charging first would be best. She had a clear mental list of each person who abused her while she laid on the floor the past few days. A very clear, very long list. And she intended to make it known to every person how big a mistake that was.

She walked into her room and breathed in the familiar scent of herself everywhere, then of X’s scent which currently emanated from her armor. It felt good to be back in her own room. She hopped into her pod and plopped down. She began drifting back to sleep as the charging process initiated and soothed her. In here she felt safe and could hide away from the world when she needed to. She remembered how Zero would try to climb in and charge with her, the two somehow managing to fit and sleep together in such a manner. It was a fond memory.

Zero…

Vile sighed as she shut her eyes. She held her left hand with her right, squeezing it and rubbing her thumb across the knuckles, pretending if for just a moment Zero was here with her again…


End file.
